ISSAN Conference : Stakeholders Advocate Synergy, Information Sharing for Safe Cyber Space

To achieve a safer cyber ecosystem, organisations must embrace synergy, information sharing and full disclosures of attacks. This was the consensus opinion of stakeholders and industry experts at the annual Information Security Society of Africa – Nigeria (ISSAN) Cybersecurity Conference in Lagos. President of FinTech Association of Nigeria (FinTechNGR), Ade Bajomo said to adequately address the rising rate of cyber-attacks, organisations should embrace collaboration and information sharing on cyber breaches. According to him, keeping silence on the part of organisations that had been attacked would not help others, stressing that full disclosure, synergy and information sharing on reported cyber-attacks and how it was managed would guide other organisations to put preventive and counter measures in place. He called on organisations to constantly upgrade their technology to counter cyber-attacks, urging them to have data backup.

The Co-founder/Chief Visionary Officer of Digital Encode, Dr. Adewale Peter Obadare, while expressing his views at the panel session, made case for collaboration amongst stakeholders, noting the need to strike the balance between the investments in people, technology, and processes to fight cyber-attack and fraud. He further stated the need to build cybersecurity intelligence quotient, which will comprise of Augmented Intelligence to check what is happening on the system real time, Anticipatory Intelligence to analyse what could happen, and Assistive Intelligence to determine what needs to be done. He recommended that digitisation, digitalisation and digital transformation should be addressed.

In a paper titled:  Understanding and Addressing Data Privacy in the Banking and Financial Services World, Managing Director, CyberTechNX, Dr. Austine Ohwobete spoke about vendor risk assessment and individual management, while taking a holistic look at the organisation’s environment as a means of identifying and curbing cyber threat incidences. In his welcome address, ISSAN President, Dr. David Isiavwe said the conference was devoted to further expose the new threats and trends in the cyber security space and also offer practical steps on what businesses and individuals need to know and do to check the rising tide of the activities of cyber-criminals. He observed that cyber attackers are getting more sophisticated globally, which is an aftermath of Covid 19 pandemic, stressing that greater awareness must be created to minimise attacks on businesses that may result in losses by various organisations.

Further, Dr. Isiavwe who is also General Manager at Ecobank made case for customer awareness as well as collaboration by all stakeholders. Other speakers at the conference include Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Digital Jewels Limited, Mrs Adedoyin Odunfa; Founder & CEO, Mint FT Innovative, Mr. Similolu Akinnusi; Chief Information Security Officer, First Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Harrison Nnaji and Managing Partner, Technology Advisors LLP, Basil Udotai, Esq; Others are Group Head, Customer Fulfillment Center, UBA, Mr. Prince Ayewoh; Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Financial Services Limited, Mr. Stanley Jacob; Sales Director (Africa), OneSpan Europe, Mr. Nicholas Poire and Field CTO, OneSpan Europe, Mr. Dan Mcloughin. ISSAN is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the protection of Nigeria’s cyberspace specifically and the entire cyberspace in Africa, generally.