Cybercrime has moved from site hacking to institutional sophisticated attacks—Expert
Emerging cyber crime detective and Business Development Manager of Asseco Nigeria, Peter Uka, has noted that cybercrime has moved from basic websites hacking and stolen of users’ data to more sophisticated methods of targeting e-Commerce sites, financial, tertiary institutions, insurance companies, and government parastatals among others.
This was displayed on Saturday when cyber attacks on national systems and leading global conglomerates’ were hit by attackers in Europe and Americas and even Australia and Middle East.
Since the world record attacks, several cyber security groups including Microsoft and others have been forced to render free fixing services for both corporate and government systems that were shattered by the coordinated weekend attacks.
According to Uka, the situation currently poses great danger to most web users including banks and other financial institutions. He revealed that many of these strategic financial institutions are usually taken unawares in related attacks but what happens is that the attacks are hardly reported to avoid erosion of public perception and confidence.
Uka disclosed further that “Most of them only try to secure their networks after they have been victims of those cyber fraudsters.”
Explaining more during the recent launch of Certum Certificate Authority in Nigeria, he reiterated that the country according to the 2014 cybercrime report by McAfee, lost about N127 billion yearly to the menace.
He added that time has come for more stringent measures to secure web users’ networks, as a survey by Kaspersky Lab, showed that 45.3 per cent of Internet users in Nigeria suffered some form of attack in the third quarter of 2015.
Uka averred that “Security for ecommerce sites and financial institution especially is no longer a luxury, because it has become imperative that all businesses and organisations of all sizes have at least basic protection for their web assets and communication channels to forestall the menace of cybercrime.”
