How is our government getting prepared for potential internet attacks on our nation’s infrastructure? The new age is not a war of machetes and guns, but bits and bytes. How are we securing our oil installations from Stuxnet? Nigeria must act and lead and not be a laughing stock in the league of nations.
As the nation sees continuous internet penetration, threats will come. Now is the time to prepare and develop the necessary structures to mitigate them. We have seen a high share of the Yahoo Boys and 419 on the web, but we need to step up and be ahead of this curve. The challenges are not just economically, but health wise.
What happens if someone infiltrates our hospitals and turn off the tubes feeding our babies in incubators? Nigeria – this is the time to plan. This is unlike anything before. We must step up the game.
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Our ratio of crime/penetration rate is very high. It is even higher than Singapore, US, UK and other leading nations. While we have made progress to move into double digits in internet penetration, we are yet to actually reduce the crime waves.
As we move into the mobile ecosystem, we must plan ahead so that the sentiments formed in the dawn of Internet is not repeated. We were seen as the people behind the cyber fraud, we cannot wait for the same fate to befall us, we have to come up with plans. The nation is still unfortunately displayed in the US Internet Crime Complaint Center with the 419 saga.
- Nigerian Letter or “419”
- Named for the violation of Section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code, the 419 scam combines the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter, email, or fax is received by the potential victim. The communication from individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials offers the recipient the “opportunity” to share in a percentage of millions of dollars, soliciting for help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts. Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are out of the country. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationary, bank name and account numbers, and other identifying information using a facsimile number provided in the letter. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim to send money to the author of the letter in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.