Cybercrime to cost businesses $2trn by 2019

THE President and Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Dr Uche Olowu, has warned chief executive officers of Nigerian businesses especially financial institutions against increasing threat of data breaches which he said could cost the world  $2 trillion by 2019.

At an Industry Round Table for Information Security Stakeholders of Banks in Nigeria with the theme: Cyber Resilience in Organisations, the CIBN boss disclosed that statistics put the cost of cyber-crime globally at $700 billion annually, a figure projected to rise to about $2 trillion by 2019, due to the rapid digitisation of consumer lives and company records.

He said in the case of Nigeria, about N198 billion is lost to the ever-increasing cases of cybercrimes per annum usually perpetrated through the financial system, stressing that many organisations are exposed to cybercrime.

Quoting the Central Bank of Nigeria, he stated that the financial sector is particularly vulnerable to cybercrime, given its crucial role of financial intermediation in a highly connected global financial system and therefore urged the forum of chief executives to be more conscious about cybersecurity, saying it is a priority for the business.

According to him, cybersecurity is not just about protecting business information, but also critical to maintaining trust with the public and customers, building company reputation, as well as safeguarding data, and critical infrastructure.

“This can all influence higher-level issues like maintaining competitiveness in the market, stock price, and shareholder value. For financial sector institutions, cybersecurity has become an issue from the top down. Board of Directors’, CEOs and senior executives must ensure that they are making the right decisions about cybersecurity for their institution,” Dr Olowu advised.

He added: “CEOs need to be able to answer tough questions and prove that they are working with the senior leadership team to develop a cybersecurity strategy and that they understand the cybersecurity landscape and how it can affect key business functions in the company.

“Furthermore, it is incumbent upon CEOs to learn more about cybersecurity to ensure their company is taking appropriate actions to secure their most valuable information assets. This does not mean that every CEO needs to become a cybersecurity expert.

“Rather, CEOs should increase their knowledge of core cybersecurity concepts and leverage their own leadership skills to conceptualise and manage risk in strategic terms, understanding the business impact of risk.

• Finding use for a criminal genius

“The activities of cyber criminals, the nature and extent of cyber risks will continue to expand. There is therefore no room for complacency if we must remain in business. It is events like this roundtable that will help propel the cyber risks agenda forward and generate new ideas to strengthen our cyber resilience,” Olowu concluded.

Against the backdrop of, data privacy issues increasing identity theft and and other regulatory issues, the CIBN boss said the institute is committed to fulfilling its mandate of building the capacity of professionals and would-be professional bankers in the industry, and by so doing would ensure that banking professionals have the necessary knowledge and competence required to operate optimally within the industry.

A new research from leading market analysts has highlighted the increasing professionalism of cybercrime, with the emergence of cybercrime products (i.e. sale of malware creation software) over the past year, as well as the decline in casual activist hacks.

The research, entitled ‘The Future of Cybercrime & Security: Financial and Corporate Threats & Mitigation’, has found that the majority of these breaches will come from existing IT and network infrastructure. While new threats targeting mobile devices and the IoT (Internet of Things) are being reported at an increasing rate, the number of infected devices is minimal in comparison to more traditional computing devices.