Experts seek coordinated approach to address cybercrime

Cyber security experts have called for coordinated efforts toward curbing the rising rate of cybercrime in the country.

The experts made the call at an awareness session organised by Infodata Professional Services in collaboration with Forcepoint, with the theme: ‘Data and Human Factor -The One Security Solution,’ in Lagos.

Senior Manager, Sales Engineering, Forcepoint, Mohammed El Shenawy, said that creating awareness from time to time about new technologies and the basic protection from Internet risk has become very important.

El Shenawy said he was in Nigeria to talk about new things happening in Cyber security because consumers of technology have started to adopt new technologies.

According to him, many of these new things are taking people’s data to the Internet and in order to secure them, there is a need for heavy investment in that space.

“For people to take credit, they need awareness and that is why we are here to talk about technology to use in protecting people from getting any data breach or exposure when this data is going into the Internet.

“This event is to create awareness for the professionals, who are working in the industry and really on the need to listen to new technologies, innovative solutions that can help do the mission of protecting their data.

“However, it is our responsibility to be careful of how we are dealing with this technology so creating awareness from time to time about this technology and how we can do basic protection from the Internet risk is very important,” he stated.

According to him, Forcepoint’s focus is dealing with people when they are interacting with their data, adding that the firm puts humans in the centre of its attention to protect their data and interaction with the Internet.

In his presentation, the Managing Director of Infodata Professional Services, Chuks Ulu Udensi, noted that current data showed that there is an increasing proliferation of targeted cyber-attacks in the financial services sector ranging from insider threats to typical Ransomware, phishing, web application and vulnerability exploitation attacks, denial of service (DoS) attacks and campaigns of the nation-state and state-sponsored threat actors.

He noted: “These challenges especially in this ever-evolving hybrid distributed work-life environment require a consolidated diversified approach to securing the enterprise in the modern world.”

In this light, Udensi explained that, “Infodata in collaboration with Forcepoint was happy to launch the Forcepoint One Solution Platform, which brings to the market a unified platform approach to protecting hybrid workforce and the information they access on the web, via the cloud and in private applications, while ensuring end-user experience and team collaboration is seamless especially in the financial services sector.”

With a highly motivated, experienced and qualified team spread across the globe, Infodata is poised to deliver the highest level of security services and solutions to users.

Regional Solution Manager, sub-Saharan Africa, Infodata Professional Services, Eze Osiago, said it partnered with Forcepoint to sensitise prospective and current customers about the growing trend in technology.

Osiago said that most businesses had migrated to Cloud due to the huge cost of maintenance of server infrastructure and as such have data in the Cloud that needs securing and coordination.

He said that staying in the cloud means that your data is no longer within the confines of your power.

According to him, the firm wants to help the customers in Cloud adoption to secure their data, consolidate them and give it a single view.

He said the firm was concerned about helping people to work without any issues with the barest minimum risk.

Chief Information Security Officer of StanbicIBTC, Abumere Igboa, said that the event had helped to create more awareness on how to keep safe online and protect the systems made available to customers to carry out financial transactions.

Abumeri said that as an institution, threats that target financial institutions and customers are constantly monitored.

He said that the institutions constantly take a look at the potential vulnerable points that customers might fall victims to and then be exploited.

According to him, the solution to threat is not a one-off approach, “so, we constantly look at multiple ways that can help to improve the level of confidence of customers.”