Information Security Officers Vow To Boost Cyber Resilience In Financial Institutions

The Committee of Chief Information Security Officers of Nigerian Financial Institutions (CCISONFI) has canvassed more proactive cybersecurity strategies and innovations to address evolving cyber attacks in the financial sector.

Chairman of CCISONFI, Festus Amede, who made this call at the 2024 Annual Conference of the Committee held recently in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, noted that genuine technological advancement was  escalating cyber attacks on businesses and organisations, disrupting and compromising sensitive customer data.

Amede, according to a statement by his media team, however called for more collaboration among relevant stakeholders including research institutions to partner, develop and implement robust and innovative cybersecurity solutions to check cyber criminals.

He appreciated the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for consistently supporting the fight against cybercrime and the risks it poses on the financial sector.

Amede said harnessing and integrating cutting edge technologies such as generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, Quantum Scale cryptography, zero trust security, biometrics, behavioural analytics and cloud security, would help build a safer financial ecosystem and adapt to unforeseen threats of the future.

He said CCISONFI was an annual engagement with seasoned experts in the cybersecurity space to guide members on how to drive cyber resilience in the age of emerging technologies.

In one of the presentations  at the conference entitled ; “Insider Threats; Persistence of Hackers and Fraudsters; Michael Crouse, who is the director, User and Data Protection at Everfox (a Cybersecurity Solution Provider) said organisations must strive to understand the behaviour of their employees as a way of safeguarding any cyber threats from the inside.

He noted that Everfox has been defending the world’s most critical data and networks against complex cyber threats for more than 25 years.

Crouse urged businesses and organisations to inculcate in their employees their values and why they must be part of the solutions and on the other hand, the company must appreciate the value of the employee suggestions and solutions to the problem.

He advised companies to put in place processes aimed at improving a seamless communication from top to bottom highlighting the effects of insider threats to the company and how their actions can curb such threats.

The Insider Threat Expert also called on organisations to support troubled and frustrated employees to avoid being threats to the company by divulging critical information to hackers and fraudsters.

He disclosed that their suite of cross domain, threat protection and insider risk solutions empower governments and enterprise organisations to use data safely where and however their people need it.

In a chat with journalists on the sidelines of the annual CCISONFI conference at Uyo, the founder and chief executive officer of Infodata Professional Services Global, Chukwuma Chuks Ulu Udensi commended the Chief Information Security Officers of Financial Institutions for boldly seeking ways to checkmate the activities of cyber criminals.

He said Infodata was committed to delivering the best in-class solutions to their customers and giving them access to solutions that meet the changing landscape of the enterprise business environment and securing them from internal and external threats.

Udensi disclosed that Infodata had a team of experts globally who were capable of ensuring that their security architecture meets all governance , risk and compliance thresholds required to be reliable, effective and efficient.

He disclosed that Everfox and Infodata Professional Services recently signed up a collaborative agreement to design, deploy and support all Everfox products and solutions globally bringing together in one ecosystem a critical mix of subject matter experts, a robust and mature services platform and a deep understanding of the ever evolving cyber threat.

For his part, the chairman of the Interpol African Working Group on Cybercrime, Uche Ifeanyi Henry called for collaborative engagement of all stakeholders in developing capabilities to detect, and deter cyber threats and cyber criminals.

Henry who is a commissioner of Police and director in charge of the Nigerian Police Force National Cyber Crime Centre canvassed for a common front among stakeholders as cyber criminals were deploying more sophisticated strategies to compromise the digital space and evade detection.

Other topics discussed during the three day conference included; Building and Maintaining Cyber Resilient Strategy and Operational Posture; Regulatory Compliance and Data Privacy; Forensics: The Knowhow and Importance; Evolution of Banking Technology and The Threat of Cyber Criminals to Digital Economy; Cyber Security: Skills Gap and Talent Management