Nigeria loses N127bn to cyber crime annually —DFID

Professor Olu Ogunsakin from the Department for International Development (DFID), on Monday, said the impact of cyber crime on the country is so vast that annually, it loses about N127 billion to criminals that used the internet to sabotage the economy.

He warned that the situation would continue until government and security agencies found a way to curb the menace.

“We should make sure that the public is quite aware of the impact of cybercrime because it is something that is borderless and it affects everybody and somebody irrespective of location,” he said, during a workshop on Cybercrime and Forensic Investigation.

Professor Ogunsakin, stated that Nigeria could curb the menace if it developed cyber technique on how to eradicate the growing menace, adding that there was the need to collaborate with countries that have strategies.

“All over the world, you will also realise that a lot of countries are suffering from it, so we need to collaborate with people because as of now, we do not have a national strategy on how to deal with this crime and we need to start from somewhere,” he said.

Also speaking, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, noted that the Force was worried with the spate of the crime.

The IGP who was represented by Assisant Inspector-General of Police, Umaru Shehu, said the criminals were constantly looking for ways to take advantage of the loopholes in the new cyber technology.

“They devote more energy and resources into committing national and international crime that are difficult to prevent and detect,” he said.

In his speech, he said, “it should be noted that these criminals are well organised and are willing to invest in modern technology so that they can commit identity theft and privacy invasion, fraudulent electronic transaction, cause havoc through insertion of computer virus and malware infections in personal and corporate computers to get upper hand or blackmail and distributed denial of service attack.

“More worrisome is the radicalisation, violent extremism and terrorism perpetrated through cyberspace and website hacking and defacement.

“Compared to traditional crime where criminals can rob one or two banks in a day, ICT has made it possible to rob hundreds of banks in less than an hour, while the perpetrators sits comfortably in their homes or offices.”