http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=62683
11.08.2006
Coordinator of the Nigerian Cybercrime Working Group (NCWG), Mr Basil
Udotai, has disclosed that the consolidation of banks has made them
vulnerable to on-line crimes.
Udotai said the increase in the capital base of banks to N25 billion had
enlisted them among the big financial houses in the world, making
targets of high level on-line hackers.
In an interactive forum with representatives of banks in Abuja, the
coordinator of the NCWG said the hackers invest a lot of money to buy
communication equipment for high level crimes and only big banks attract
their interest.
Udotai said some of the banks had already brought complaints of website
cloning by unknown persons and the risks would keep increasing as their
investments continue to grow.
He stressed the need for all banks to build a "virtual centre'' where
they would be sharing information from time to time instead of hoarding
facts for fear of competition.
Udotai said the centre for sharing information must be based on a
framework of "readiness, responsiveness and resilience "and the
benchmarking of global best practices in checking hackers.
"Bankers must share information without the fear that their partners
would use it against them in competition and they must have network of
security experts'', he said
Udotai said the cybercrime and cybersecurity bill for the country was
still before the national assembly but it had already gone through the
first public hearing in the senate.
He said the passage of the bill into law would give law enforcement
agents the legal backing to investigate, arrest and prosecute on-line
crimes.
Reports indicate that all the banks in attendance which include Access
banks, UBA,Diamond bank and Skye bank, agreed to endorse a synergy known
as FinCERT Nigeria project, to take pro-active measures against hackers.
Received on Thu Nov 9 00:13:04 2006