The United States envoy to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, has urged the Federal Government of Nigeria , telecoms operators and network users to prioritise security as preparations have reached an advanced stage to deploy the 5G network.
She stated this in Abuja at the 2021 International Legislative Stakeholders Conference on Digital Technology and Cyber Security organised by the Senate Committee on Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and Cybercrime.
Leonard cautioned that allowing mistrusted telecommunications service providers to participate in or control 5G network would create risks to national security, critical infrastructure, privacy and respect for human rights.
The Envoy stressed that national measures should be deployed to mitigate significant security risks from high-risk suppliers, regardless of their nationality, by precluding such suppliers from providing 5G network infrastructure, equipment, software and services.
She noted that to safeguard the infrastructure, essential services, public safety, consumer protection, privacy and economic prosperity, “we all need to ensure that we can prevent, detect and respond to cyber security incidents and hold criminals and countries responsible for any malicious cyber activity in their domains.”
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