Kola Kehinde/

More than 30 experts from around the world are converging in Nigeria to discuss new ways of tackling Cybercrime, says the Senate Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Cybercrime.

The Senate Committee led by Senator Yakubu Oseni made the revelation, on Tuesday, during an inspection tour of facilities at the Lagos base of a leading Cyber Security firm in Nigeria, CyberSOC Africa.

Oseni and members of his team revealed how they have been clearing the decks for a fresh onslaught on Cybercrime, which, according to them, has remained a challenging subject despite increasing awareness and attention to tackling the threat in Nigeria.

After inspecting CyberSOC’s state-of-the-art 24/7 Cyber Security Operations Centre at CBC Towers, Lekki in Lagos, Sen. Oseni briefed reporters on strides being taken by the Senate to address the effect of cybercrime on the nation.

According to him, one of such steps is the participation of more than 30 experts in an on-coming conference tagged: 2020 International Legislative Stakeholders Conference on Digital Technology and Cyber Security, scheduled for 12th -15th October 2020 in Nigeria. 

He said that over 800 participants have registered online for the event that will also create awareness, and present opportunities for youths with much ICT knowledge to make better living through positive means rather than criminality.

Fielding questions from reporters, Oseni and his team disclosed how the committee was created by the 8th Senate and its scope expanded by the 9th Senate to cover many issues which cyber security is part of.

He said, “Sometimes on 27th November, 2019, a motion was raised, on the floor of the Senate, on the growth of ICT in Nigeria and the need to safeguard the present and the future of Nigeria. Now, ICT is not new but the growth is what we are talking about here. And, of course, growth comes with associated consequences such as cyber-attacks, cyber-crimes and the likes.

“The committee is saddled with the responsibility of engaging all the stakeholders, all the MDAs, to see their level of ICT compliance, and their level of awareness in terms of cyber-security aspect of it. We’ve really gone round, we’ve seen, and we have established the gaps in terms of data protection, cyber-attacks and even ICT compliance level gaps.

“With that, we are going to organize an international conference which is going to involve all the stakeholders, both public and private stakeholders, so that we can celebrate and actually see what gap is really established, and brainstorm on how we can take Nigeria out of this cyber-attack mess.

“We’ll organize the conference and see how, as a parliament, we can strengthen the old laws and create new ones. To see how we can address the situation and be at par with other countries that are already there in terms of ICT.”

Speaking on the committee’s assessment of facilities at CyberSOC, Oseni said, “It’s obvious that CyberSOC is not just a service provider. It’s an organized service provider in terms of cyber-security. That’s why they have some top government offices as their clients.

“From what we have seen so far, they have lots of sophisticated equipment and they can be recommended for patronage in terms of engagements.”  

Those who accompanied the Chairman of the Committee are Senator Foster Ogola, a Consultant to the Senate Committee on ICT Matters; Senator Okey-Jev, member of the Senate Committee on ICT Matters; Mr Ayoh Ogon, Secretary to the Senate Committee on ICT Matters, and Mr Patrick Essien, Technical Lead to the Senate Committee on ICT Matters.

They were received by CyberSOC officials led by Mr Yaniv Ovitz.