AFROCET Montgomery has announced plans to host the 2017 Securex West Africa Exhibition in conjunction with the launch of West African Cyber Security Summit (WACSS).

Securex West Africa is the most established and only dedicated security and public safety event to serve the government and private sector in the region, with more than 45 exhibitors representing 14 countries. In a statement, the organisers said that the summit would be taking place from March 21 to 23, 2017 with WACSS taking place alongside the exhibition and conference on  March 22, at Landmark Centre, Lagos, focusing on topics centred on corporate security, training the next generation, financial crime and governance.

The statement that the cyberspace has ushered in new opportunities with its security challenges and this will be a new platform and the first of its size and scale in West Africa which will bring together industry experts from both the private and public sector to discuss the challenges, opportunities and trends in cyber security.

The statement pointed out that there is a need for knowledge sharing to tackle the risk associated with cyber crime. “Cyber Security in Nigeria is becoming an increasingly pertinent topic as it poses a growing threat to the country’s security. Cyber threats and attacks are becoming commonplace, sophisticated and damaging. This evolving landscape is requiring a far more focused and urgent response to the growing risks presented by cyber attacks. “Nigeria has been making huge leaps in its response to cyber crime that in 2015 the cybercrime bill was signed into law, meaning that cybercrime is now properly defined and legal consequences are attached to any defiance of this law.

“However, there is still a huge way to go and it is important now more than ever that public and private sectors would work to build a strategy to tackle the risk.One way this can be accomplished is through knowledge sharing and it is for this reason that in 2017 Securex West Africa.”