Cyber Crime and the Nigeria Economy
yes! everybody says we are into computer times, has the computer being of advantage to us or has really killed our economy, what part has the computer played in our economy today?
What is cyber crime?
Computer crime, or cybercrime, is crime that
involves a computer and
a network The
computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the
target. Debarati Halder and K. Jaishankar (2011) define cybercrimes as:
"Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals
with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim or
cause physical or mental harm, or loss, to the victim directly or indirectly,
using modern telecommunication networks such as Internet (Chat rooms, emails,
notice boards and groups) and mobile phones (SMS/MMS)". Such crimes may threaten a nation's
security and financial health Issues
surrounding these types of crimes have become high-profile, particularly those
surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, child
pornography, and child
grooming. These
crimes are committed by a selected group of criminals. Unlike crimes using the
computer as a tool, these crimes require the technical knowledge of the
perpetrators. As such, as technology evolves, so too does the nature of the
crime. These crimes are relatively new, having been in existence for only as
long as computers have—which explains how unprepared society and the world in
general is towards combating these There
are numerous crimes of this nature committed daily on the internet:
Crimes that primarily target
computer networks or devices include:
Between 2013 and 2014, the activities of
criminals who chose the cyber space as their platform of operation has cost
Nigeria a whopping N127billion.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj-Gen
Babagana Monguno (retd), lamented that the huge loss was incurred through
intellectual property theft, malware attacks, electronic payment frauds and
software piracy by unscrupulous persons.
“A report published in 2014 by the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies, United Kingdom, estimated the annual cost
of cybercrime to Nigeria at about 0.08 per cent of our GDP, representing about
N127 billion. Also, the 2014 annual report of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance
Corporation (NDIC), shows that between 2013 and 2014, fraud on e-payment
platform of Nigeria’s banking sector increased by 183 per cent,” Monguno
lamented during the inauguration of a 31-man Cybercrime Advisory Council in
Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
According to him, the activities of cyber
criminals pose very serious threat to the national economy and efforts to boost
financial inclusion through the use of alternative payment channels other than
cash.
The NSA is also chair of the 31-man committee
which membership are drawn the Independent and Corrupt Practices Commission
(ICPC), Directorate of State Security Service (DSS), from the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Office of the Security Adviser (ONSA),
Ministries of Trade and Investment, Foreign Affairs, Finance, and Justice,
Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), Nigerian Prison Service (NPS), Nigerian Police
Force (NPF), Galaxy Backbone, and others.
He said the activities of cybercriminals have
continued to pose real threat to government’s economic activities, urging the
all government organisations, the private sector and civil society groups to
join hands with the government and fight cybercrimes so that people will feel
confident to take advantage of the enormous opportunities offered by the
internet.
Comments
Post a Comment