Fighting Cyber crime in Nigeria

Description:

The impact and influence of the internet over the past few years has been immense. The widespread availability of computers and internet connections provides unprecedented opportunities in every field-entertainment, medicine, business, education.

There are two sides to a coin. The internet, along with its advantages has also exposed us to security risks. Cybercrime is one of the major disadvantages of the internet.

The British Police defines cybercrime as ‘the use of any computer network for crime’.

The most prevalent forms of cybercrime are Website Cloning, Financial Fraud, Identity Theft, Credit Card Theft, Cybertheft, Cyberharassment, Fraudulent Electronic Mails, Cyberlaundering, Virus / Worms / Trojans.

Background Check International (BCI) is one of the organisatons which has been set up with the mission to eradicate this menace to society in Nigeria.  The company is the pioneer of the Background Screening industry in Nigeria, and offers claims verification, investigative due diligence, risk management and IT security / cyber crime solutions. BCI is also the NIIS (Nigeria Institute For Industrial Security) Background Screeners Award winner

The most common form of cyber crime in Nigeria is probably Fraudulent Electronic mails, referred to as 419 in Nigeria. Apparently the number "419" refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code (part of Chapter 38: "Obtaining Property by false pretences; Cheating") dealing with fraud. These usually take the form of emails, letters or faxes in which the recipient is persuaded to advance sums of money with the promise of realising a significantly larger gain.

As these cybercrimes are becoming more sophisticated, Nigeria is of late also being plagued by the hijacking of PIN numbers of debit cards, credit cards, and other ATM cards through fake websites of banks, and card switching companies. For example, several recipients have reported receiving emails that Interswitch is upgrading its system and in order to upgrade their record they need to disclose my pin number and other information.

“Unfortunately, many Nigerians fall prey to it, thinking it is authentic and which many are still falling for because these guys have succeeded in cloning the website of companies like Interswitch, MTN and a lot of them keep coming up. This is why when you visit website of any of the banks in Nigeria you see scam disclaimers and scam alerts. This is the reason why BCI started off a cyber crime unit of our business which checks the background of the information you download from the internet and the way you access some things. Many of our people are so naïve including corporate organizations. What BCI cyber crime unit does is to assist organisations in securing their networks.” says Kola Olugbodi, Managing Director of BCI.

“We are of the opinion that officers of the Nigerian police should be abreast of the latest happenings in the field of cyber crime, cyber terrorism and Cyber Security counter-measures, hence the initiative for the workshop”, he further explains.

As a result, BCI has entered into partnership with the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) on Cyber Fraud Checks BCI and as part of its CSR and Public Private Participation, is training members of the NPF from January 25-29, 2010 on new trends of cyber fraud checks and relevant counter-measures.