Africa
PROF. Aderonke Ikuomola has urged the Federal Government to ensure robust policy formulation, regulatory framework, enforcement and deterrent measures to tackle cyber security menace in Nigeria.
Ikuomola, a professor of Computer Science and Information Security, made the call at the 12th Inaugural Lecture of Olusegun Agagu University of Science and Technology (OAUSTECH), Okitipupa in Okitipupa Local Government Area on Thursday.
The prof. gave a lecture tilted “The Vigilant Watchman And The Serpent’s Wisdom: Artificial Intelligence, Ethical Hacking and the Future of Proactive Cyber Defense”.
Ikuomola, also the pioneer and substantive Dean, School of Computing, OAUSTECH, said robust policies and legal frameworks against cyber security would enhance compliance, improve resilience and encourage responsible digital practices in the country.
She also harped on the need for continuous awareness and campaign to people on how to protect their personal and organisational information so that it would not be compromised,
According to her, Nigerians should be equipped with proactive cyber attack skills in order to prevent their data and information from cyber insecurity.
“Nowadays, we talk about yahoo, yahoo plus, phising engineering and all sorts of cyber attacks everywhere.
“We have people at the back end trying to hijack, compromise or manipulate sensitive personal or organisational information.
“You can only secure those sensitive information from being compromised through increasing awareness and cyber skills and knowledge among the professionals and the citizenry.
“As they are attacking, we should try as much as possible to provide and practice proactive cyber defence, It goes beyond you protecting manually.
“You should make use of all these technology devices, utilizing the softwares to protect your data and information so that it cannot be hijacked or tampered with.
“People should not see it as cumbersome, but endeavor to protect their information by making use of all these technology and biometrics.
“In banks, they talk about making use of fingerprints, Personal Identification Numbers (PIN’s), Quick Test Professional (QTP’s) among others,” she said.
The don added that people or users should try as much as possible to ensure their PIN and passwords were very strong, well secured and updated.
She explained that the measures would prevent attackers, impersonators, intruders, syndicates and other cyber fraudsters from hacking, infringing, compromising or accessing their bank accounts, emails, clouds and other personal or impersonal information systems.
The scholar, however, called for continuous skill development in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cyber security, ethical responsibility in technology use, continuous research and collaboration especially on emerging and local challenges.
She also noted that, proactive ethical backing, curriculum enhancement, adoption of intelligent cyber defence systems, strategic partnership and investment in infrastructure and workforce by industry.
Also, OAUSTECH’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Temi Ologunorisa, commended for the lecture and emphasised it would go a long way in preventing fraud in banking, education, administration and a host of others.
“I, therefore, call on the government to continue to fund research, because no country can develop beyond the level of the development of its universities and funding research will open up development, economic growth and improvement in quality of life of the citizenry,” Ologunorisa said.
NAN reports that the lecture was well attended by scholars, government functionaries, traditional rulers, and religious leaders. (NAN)
F.O
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