Galaxy Backbone Ensuring Data Security To Strengthen Digital Economy

Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited has been ensuring that data shared by the government remains in Nigeria’s digital space to maintain the security requirements of confidentiality, integrity, availability and accessibility for all stakeholders in the country and beyond.

This is in attempt to reinforce the value proposition of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) developed by the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.

Launched in 2019, NDEPS (2020 – 2030) is a Federal Government’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy developed to reposition the Nigerian economy in order to take advantage of the many opportunities that digital technology provides and move away from over dependence on the oil and gas sector.

GBB is an Information Technology (IT) enabler established with the core mission of providing network management, secure communications, digital infrastructure services and equipping public, private and corporate organisations with the necessary IT skills for digital operational excellence in accordance with world best practices.

Accordingly, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Prof. Muhammad Bello Abubakar developed an idealistic strategic business plan that laid out the critical requirements for GBB to succeed and fulfill its mandate effectively, and supports NDEPS, Nigerian National Broadband Plan as well as Nigerian e-Government masterplan.

Consequently, a-five year Strategic Business Plan was put in place to achieve short, medium and long term plan in harmony with the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital EconomyStrategic Plan to increase revenue-base of Galaxy Backbone.

The five year also aimed at getting Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) onboard with GBB uninterrupted services and automate all government parastatals, as well as the fiber infrastructure distribution across the country and partnership with all ICT providers in Nigeria and the entire African sub-region.

The masterplan was supported with six pillars as follows:

Government Priority (i): To ensure tactical operations of Galaxy Backbone are geared toward the attainment of the federal government digital economy developmental policies and strategies.

Government Priority (ii): To ensure that all data stored within and outside Nigeria as the host country is subjected to the laws and guidelines of the Galaxy Backbone to secure data, exchanged by MDAs in conformity with digital security architecture and its designate availability to the required stakeholders.

Financial Sustainability: Finance, being the life-wire of any institution, this pillar ensures the GBBs value addition to the government as its first point of call, customers and stakeholders for self-sustainability and growth of the country’s Gross Domestic Project (GDP).

Customer Satisfaction: To ensure the chronicles and scope of GBB are customer oriented and initiated rapid response team to service the users of the GBB infrastructures as it deployed technology to facilitate outcome that gives customers seamless and the best service delivery.

Operational Excellence: To focus GBBs attention on ecosystem utilisation and management, professional outlook, digitally oriented process, state-of-the-art fiber infrastructure for all stakeholders to enjoy values given by the GBB.

Improved Capability: To create awareness for Nigerians to understand the operational excellence of GBB and its benevolence in Information Technology enabling capacity and dexterity to carry out ICT services diligently and efficiently.

These, amongst other strategies GBB under the leadership has been ensuring the protection of government investment in Critical National Information Communications Technology Infrastructure; providing value to  MDAs, private sector and underserved communities to strengthen digital economy and take the nation to greatness.

Also, the Prof. Abubakar-led GBB continues to ensure cyber security operations; monitoring the cyber behavior, national server space, what comes into Nigeria to guarantee data security and give confidence to government, private investors both local and foreign.

Galaxy Backbone ensures efficient and effective data protection and cyber security generally through the Department of Security and Business Continuity (ISBC) headed by Dr Nasiru Shinkafi.

Shinkafi said in a recent interview with journalists that amongst others, GBB has Cyber Security Operation Center which is a service area that provides the opportunity and platform to monitor the cyber behavior and also the national server space.

He said through the centre, GBB monitors what comes into this country, what happens, and what is the interest of the global community in terms of cyber threats, vulnerabilities and also handle them as they come.

“Galaxy Backbone had positioned itself to make sure that we don’t only provide services, we also try to make sure that the services given to people are first cleared, safe and secured and at the same time, have trained users that are well equipped and enlighten as providers of infrastructure around the Solid, Soft and also a Service infrastructure.

“Galaxy Backbone under the auspicious leadership of Professor Muhammad Bello Abubakar, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, had through the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy…got requisite and timely support to invest heavily on cyber security solutions and services.

“Some of these initially, were meant to provide security for our internal infrastructure; all these infrastructure ecosystems are meant to be protected by that investment. But what we’ve observed lately, that solution is better utilised if it’s also extended to all the government Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs), general public and all the enterprises.

“The dynamics in cyber security is closely monitored within Galaxy as an organisation, and we always leverage our global partners to move with the time, go with the global trend and try to provide requisite responses to very latest and recent cybersecurity evolutions or cyber threats that we see evolving within the cyberspace.

“Using the artificial intelligence, we could also predict what is likely going to happen and based on that prediction, we also plan so as to protect unharden our interfaces and any other infrastructure that we may have which could be vulnerable to the system, at the same time the individual.

“We envisage that, unless that is done, there will be total challenges and total exposure to relevant vital data and possibilities of losing complete services; which probably, either the government or organisations do provide.

“Galaxy Backbone look forward to all and sundry interested to join the cybersecurity bandwagon by partnering with us to see how we can work together to achieve this very giant stride of our principal who is always campaigning for healthy-cyberspace and hygienic-ecosystem within the IT industry in Nigeria and beyond,” Shinkafi stated.