Professor Rasheed Gbenga Jimoh, a renowned technology expert and academic, has called on the Nigerian Government to invest in cybersecurity and information security to ensure the safe use of the internet by Nigerians.
The tech expert gave the charge while delivering his inaugural lecture titled, “Deconstructing the Crawling Mindsets: Combatting Security Challenges of Net-centric Computing” at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State North Central Nigeria.
He noted that to ensure the safety of Nigerian users in the internet space, it is important for the government to give more consideration to cybersecurity and information security management in their budgetary allocation and policies.
He said: “Culture of investments in the area of cybersecurity should be improved and subsequently adequate budgetary allocations be made by public and private organisations.
“Expected prominence should be given to information security management in the ICT policies of organisations at all levels towards achieving secured operations in the digital era,” he added.
Jimoh emphasized that the government need to raise the consciousness of Nigerians on general information security ethics and practice by integrating the three major languages in the Country, Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo into technology.
The don stated further that the government should double its efforts and provide funds for aggressive awareness of the need for cultural adaptation to the emerging digital era with specific attention geared towards the use of the three basic languages in Nigeria.
“NITDA’s developed data protection and privacy regulations should be well communicated to all Nigerians in three basic Nigerian languages towards achieving desired inclusiveness in raising the consciousness of all citizens on general information security ethics and practice” he said.
Jimoh also recommended that the “Government should fund commercially viable research outputs on intrusion, spam, phishing and denial of service detection and prevention to guarantee safe and secure net-centric activities”
He enjoined financial institutions to embrace technology to prevent financial frauds, saying that, “sophisticated authentication methods should be encouraged to guarantee security of both card and cardless financial transactions to prevent all associated financial frauds,”
Professor Jimoh also recommended that the Government should introduce biometric technology into public places, especially in educational institutions to prevent impersonation and on-campus insecurity.
He said: “Iris biometric authentication being the most accurate biometric authentication approach in public domains, should be encouraged through reasonable investment by Government to support the use of biometric technology in public places.
“The use of fingerprint authentication should be encouraged in all educational processes within the university system to prevent cases of impersonation and campus insecurity. Students’ biometrics can be easily collected from the JAMB’s Central Admission Processing System (CAPS), the IT Expert emphasised”
He, however, stressed that it is important for the Government and private organisations to dedicate cybersecurity units in all their offices to drive the expected cybersecurity initiatives.
The inaugural lecture which is the 239th of its kind in the university, was chaired by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Wahab Olasupo Egbewole (SAN) and was well attended by people from all walks of life especially those in the Academic field, traditional rulers and the media.
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