Nigeria loses N129 Billion to cyber scam

Nigeria has lost about N129 billion to online identity theft, the Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr. Peter Jack has said.

Dr. Jack made the disclosure Wednesday, during the National Cybersecurity Policy Capacity Workshop organised by Microsoft Nigeria in conjunction with the Office of the National Security Adviser to the President in Abuja.



He explained that the loss was incurred in the last 13 years from between 2000 to 2013 due to defacement of about 2,175 websites across the country, including 585 of them belonging different government agencies.

‘‘There has been a loss of about N129bn in the last 13 years from 2000 to 2013 in terms of online scam and identity theft due to defacement of different websites.

‘‘There is a recorded 2,175 websites that have been defaced in terms of web defacement, and among them, 585 are actually government websites, including Lagos state government.

‘‘Also available is range of possible attacks on external intrusion through copy rights infringements and unethical IT practices by scammers all the way to insider threats. This is in addition to some statistics of some infringements perpetrated on various online identities.’’

On the contribution of NITDA towards prevention of the Nigerian cyberspace, he stated that the agency was able establish the NITDA’s CERT. NG centre to police the cyberspace.

He also disclosed that ITDA was also able to monitor some activities during the last general elections in the country but because of the absence of formal reporting framework, it was difficult to share that information at that time.