Microsoft Nigeria recently partnered with the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) and other industry stakeholders to organize the National Cybersecurity Building Workshop with the theme; “Balancing Cybersecurity Risks, Innovation and National Security.”
The workshop which was the first of its kind in Nigeria held in Abuja and had over a 100 participants drawn from; the Defence Headquarters, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Nigerian Army (NA), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), the Nigerian Navy (NN), Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Economic & Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Federal Road Safety Corps, Galaxy Back Bone and other industry stakeholders.
At the opening of the two-day event, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major Babagana Monguno, represented by Barrister. Isaac Idu, Director of Internal Security of the NSA, highlighted the growing prevalence of cybercrime in the country and the large sums of money lost by both individuals and the nation as a whole.
He continued by saying, “Conscious of the diversity of implications of the nation’s risk exposure in cyberspace, the Federal Government as a matter of urgency, put in place cohesive measures towards addressing the emerging risks effectively. These are: Development of the Nigeria’s National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy documents; Establishment of the Nigeria’s Cybercrime Act 2015; Establishment of the National Cyber Monitoring Centre, i.e. the Nigeria’s National Computer Emergency Response Team (ngCERT) Operation Center; Establishment of National Computer Forensics Lab for cybercrime investigations by all security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies and Establishment of effective collaboration mechanism with international cybersecurity organizations across the globe.”
The Managing Director of Microsoft Nigeria, Kabelo Makwane, in his address mentioned that Microsoft’s partnership on the Cyberesecurity workshop was borne out of the company’s desire to support not just ONSA but also all Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies ( MDAs), in acquiring knowledge on current global approaches to tackling National cybersecurity risks, security and privacy of data in the cloud, cybersecurity Strategy, cybersecurity forensics and audit skills, global policy and legal developments, cloud computing and its benefits and growing local data hosting capabilities, in line with the new Nigerian cybercrime law, the Cybercrime Act 2015.
The Director General of the National Information technology Development Agency (NITDA), Peter Jack, who was also present at the workshop, mentioned some things his agency was currently doing to tackle cybercrimes in the country. These include its just concluded plans to collaborate with ONSA in developing a framework to address child online abuse in the country and the establishment of the NITDA’s cert.NG centre to police cyberspace.
Reiterating that the workshop was part of government’s renewed commitment to safeguard the nation’s cyberspace and ensure the protection of the nation’s information infrastructure, Monguno explained that the Federal Government is determined to confront all threats in the Nigerian cyberspace and would support the openness of the country’s cyberspace as it balances security with respect to privacy and fundamental human rights.