Cyber crime does not respect geographical location; it knows no boundaries, religion or nationality. Cyber criminals attack and spread across the whole world in a matter of minutes, sparing no one.

Against the backdrop of the widening and fast-growing cyber crime across the globe, a World Cyber Security Conference was held in Abuja on September 17, 2013, with the theme, “Cyber Insecurity: A Latent Threat To National Security and Economic Development.”

Africa, particularly Nigeria, is growing at a faster rate in technology adoption and consumption than countries in Europe. Nigeria, is one of the top five countries on Facebook, and other social media. The flip side of this development is that this has also created room for widespread perpetuation of cyber crimes.

Quite recently, for instance, Nigeria was  rated as number 59 on the list of cyber crimes locations in the world by the Symantec Quarterly rating for 2013. Needless to say, this is NOT good news for a country that daily struggles to reconfigure world perceptions about her.

This alarming spate of cyber insecurity had prompted the Director of the Telecommunication Development Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union, ITU, Brahima Sanou, during their meeting in Costa Rica, to discuss cyber threats and cyber security in the African region.

The essence of these discussions was to address ways and means of stemming this malaise. At this event also, the First Lady of Nigeria, Dame Patience Jonathan was appointed, as ITU’s Child Online Protection, COP, Champion.

On her return to Nigeria, the First Lady and her Office, instituted and facilitated  the World Cyber Security Conference to further emphasise that global collaboration is imperative in addressing the threatening effects on the moral and physical safety of our children as a result of online misuse. She seized the opportunity of this event to appeal passionately to the National Assembly to enact a law that will carry a stiff punishment for all cyber criminals.

She noted that as many more people join the growing list of Internet users, the advantages and vast benefits that the Internet presents, becomes more apparent. Indeed, the Internet daily commands increased global audience, bringing the world closer and closer together than before.

She described the Internet as one of the “greatest inventions of mankind which has changed the way we communicate, conduct business and socialise.”

This campaign for cyber-security is timely, according to the National Coordinator of the I-Nigerian Initiative, Ada Stella Apiafi. The cyber world, and its application, should be for education, entertainment, and commerce, to harness the great potential we have in Nigeria.

Parents, she affirms, have a pivotal role to play in supervising how, and what sites their children visit, bearing in mind that the average Nigerian child is quite intelligent, smart and eager to explore new frontiers.

According to the former Israeli Prime Minister, Mr. Ehud Barak who spoke at the conference, governments the world over should join hands to fight this endemic.

He said in times past, ‘bows and arrows’ were used to fight wars, killing just a target at a time, but today, technology has advanced so much that just a timebomb could destroy thousands of people within a short time. The same thing could be said about cyber crimes – the menace spreads like wild fire, with individuals, corporate bodies and even government mails being hacked practically every second.

He concluded by saying that online crime has worse consequences than war crimes, because of the colossal damage it causes.

The Minister of Communications and Technology, Mobolaji Johnson, cited the case of a Nigerian youth, Ms. Cynthia Osokogu, who was lured and killed in Lagos, through cyber crime.

She called on the National Assembly members to pass a law, as a matter of urgency, with punishment ranging from 50 years jail term to life in imprisonment.

Ordinarily it is expected that parents should teach their children the use of technology, especially telephone usage, but most parents are not as versatile or dynamic in the use of their phones as their children. Which begs the question: who supervises who?! For adults it is difficult to balance what we do; with children it is even more difficult.

This observation was made by Dr. Salma Abbasi, a member of the International Telecommunication Union’s, ITU, high level experts group for cyber crime. Dr. Tunde Lemo, Deputy Director in charge of Operations at the Central Bank of Nigeria, said cyber crime is also very strongly perpetuated with banking, and electronic funds transfers.

He urged the conveners of the forum to take steps and position themselves such that the financial institutions will not be so terribly hit by these unrepentant cyber criminals.

He said hackers continue to attack accounts of customers. There is an ominous possibility of huge losses if not stopped now, particularly with the introduction of the cashless economy which itself has its own pains and gains.

Ms Stella Amuwa, a commentator on national issues, wrote from Abuja