The new President and Chairman of Risk Managers Society of Nigeria (RIMSON), Raymond Akalonu, has called on the federal government to address the rising spate of cybercrime in the country by putting in place proper risk procedures and ensuring effectiveness of the data protection policies.
He also assured that his tenure as the president of the association would bring about regular risk management reports on national disasters with suggested mitigants and solutions.
Akalonu, said this while addressing RIMSON members at the 2019 National Risk Management Conference in Lagos.
Speaking on the theme, “Emerging Risks: Rising to the Challenge,” he said his administration would ensure that the association remains committed to the collaboration with the Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation towards entrenching risk management culture in all government agencies and parastatals in Nigeria.
He said RIMSON would perform the task through continuous strengthening of its research potential and capabilities.
Also speaking in his hand over note, the immediate past president of RIMSON, Mr Jacob Adeosun, expressed optimism that the new executive members of the society led by Akalonu would deliver on their mandate.
Delivering the theme paper, Managing Director, Custodian Investment Plc, Wole Oshin, stated that the absence of an effective data protection agency in Nigeria has made a lot of businesses vulnerable to cyber risk.
According to him, Hackivists, insiders and third party service providers are the sources of these crimes.
On mitigating strategies, he advised that operators should often audit the user base action, identify the users of systems/assets and align appropriately.
However, the Director E-Government Development and Regulatory of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Vincent Olatunji, represented by Chioma Oke Ogugua of NITDA, stated that part of the agency’s portfolio was to ensure the protection of individual collective privacy security and confidentiality of information in Nigeria, stressing that the agency has the right to regulate data protection and privacy in Nigeria.
On fighting cyber-crime, an Executive Director at SystemSpecs Nigeria, Emmanuel Eze, said there should be improvement in reporting incidents and called for the establishment of a convergent national identity management system for tracking and reference purposes in the event of cybercrime.
“Companies should collaborate with telecommunication companies to ensure easy information retrieval regarding their client in case of any cyber related crime,” he added.
