Nigeria Loses N90billion to Cybercrime

Nigeria lost over N90billion from about 3,599 cyber-attacks carried out on internet users and websites in between April 2015 and February 2016.

A cyber-security expert, Abdulhakeem Ajijola, who is the lead consultant at Consultancy Support Services (CS2) Limited, gave the figures out in Abuja on Wednesday, March 30, at the opening ceremony of a three-day cyber security awareness campaign and capacity building workshop organiszed by National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in partnership with Malaysia Cybersecurity Agency.

He said more than 2,518 websites were defaced in Nigeria between 2011 and now, adding that 0.80 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), equivalent to the Cement sector, is lost to cybercrime yearly.

He listed some of the websites attacked to include: The Embassy of Nigeria in Saudi Arabia (attacked on 09 Jan 2016), Federal Court of Appeal (attacked on 19-Dec-15) in protest of the deaths of Shiite members in Zaria during clash with Nigerian Army), Independent National Electoral Commission (attacked on 11 Jul 2014), and Nigeria’s House of Representatives (attacked on 01-Oct-14 ).

Others include: Federal Ministry of Information (attacked on 08-Jul-13) and Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which was attacked on 28-Oct-2011.