BY EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

For the teeming participants that thronged the Golden Gate Restaurants Ikoyi Lagos, venue of this years edition of Titans of Tech lectures and award night, last week, the major aim was to see how to tackle the issue of cyber crime which has continuously given the country sleepless nights.

Hacker

No wonder the theme of the conference was ‘Promoting Economic Development through Effective Cyber Security’ .

However, at the end of the day, it seems as though there was a general agreement that if the issue of obsolete school curriculum is arrested, the solution to cybercrime was almost getting closer.

At least that could be the best way to interpret the feelings of Chairman of the occasion and President of Computer Professionals of Nigeria, Mr Ibrahim Tizhe on the issue.

According to him, the blame for increasing spate of cyber crime should be on obsolete curriculum and in his own opinion, time has come for relevant authorities to expedite action to ensure that a new curriculum that would address the problem is put into use.

Another area he discovered to have heightened the problem of cyber security was the reality of an old IT legislation that obviously does not reflect new trends in the sector. This is even as he called for a new IT legislation that would reflect the realities of modern time.

For him, “issue of curriculum is being tackled following complains about obsolete one in use. The current IT legislation is over 15 years and needed to be reviewed. We are pushing this with relevant stakeholders to make it happen. New journey has started following the non actualization of the previous efforts,” he stated.

Also speaking at the occasion, the Director General of National Information Technology Development Agency,c stressed the importance of information technology as a modern tool of business in the current global knowledge economy saying that it presents opportunities for countries to bridge the digital divide and achieve social-economic development.

Angaye said that for Nigeria to achieve sustainable socio-economic development in the modern business environment, there must be availability of the right information at the right time.

With the current global subscription estimated at about 5.3 billion and internet users at 2 billion, he said that the operations of both public and private entities would continue to depend largely

on the cyberspace.

He however noted that the over dependency of the world on cyber space had potentially made countries vulnerable to cyber attacks.

For enhanced economic development, the NITDA DG called for effective cyber security in the country as well as necessary mechanisms that can put cybercrime in check, including capacity building; passage of necessary enabling laws on electronic transactions; awareness creation on threats and activities of those involved in cyber crimes.

He said that these, would be backed up with appropriate policy framework and the corresponding strategic action plan to create the enabling environment that would enhance cyber security .

In his goodwill message, the President of Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, ISPON , Mr. Uwaje urged participants to always make use of enormous opportunities in the industry just like he challenged the Nigerian banks to acquire ethical hackers and urged stakeholders in the industry to collaborate.

He however, called for a competitive environment, where people, including illiterate ones would come and showcase their talents.