There are indications that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) may consider appointing knowledgeable subscribers to act as ambassadors and educate their relations and relatives on cyber risks.
That consideration was the result of dialogue among subscribers at the 87th Telecom Consumer Parliament organised by Commission held in Lagos, South West, Nigeria.
At the event, which had in attendance the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta and top officials of the NCC, the Parliament equally enjoined Service Providers to endeavour to implement “Know Your Customer” procedures on the subscribers in order to maintain a stronger and more credible database.
The 87th Telecom Consumer Parliament, considered the fight against cybercrimes focusing on the role of telecoms service providers in addressing the challenges of cybercrimes, and resolved that the NCC together with Service Providers in the telecom sector should continue to sensitize telecom subscribers about cybercrime and other sectoral issues in pidgin and other local languages.
The result of the discussion also indicated that the Service Providers should educate subscribers about cybercrimes during SIM Registration process as well as through End-of-Call-Notifications.
In addition, the participants agreed with the suggestion of the EVC that Service Providers should install firewalls on their networks, even as it was noted that all national efforts at addressing cybersecurity should be all-inclusive in order to be effective.
Earlier in his opening remark, the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, recalled the processes instituted by the Commission in this regard and drew the attention of participants to the fact that “risks and benefits are associated with revolutions and we need to focus on the risks even as we harness the benefits of the telecommunications revolution”.
Danbatta explained that this reality made the Commission to set up a Computer Security Incidence Response Teams (CSIRT) exclusively for the telecommunications sector.
NCC’s Director Consumer Affairs Bureau, Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, while welcoming the participants to the TCP, reassured subscribers of Commission’s faith in collaboration and consultation adding that the TCP has become a platform for addressing critical challenges affecting the telecoms sector.
Dr. Greg Ezeilo, a certified ethical hacker and information security expert, who presented the lead paper spoke about the sociology of cybercriminality, policy and legal framework required to deal with the challenges, as well as the role of the regulator and the service providers.
He spoke about the objective imperatives for multilateral and communal efforts to address all facets of cyber insecurity.
Several questions, comments and observations made by participants were addressed largely by the EVC, after which Zubairu Jide Atta led the ‘parliamentary’ discourse to articulate further the issues raised by the lead and other speakers in order to arrive at implementable resolutions.
Ismail Adedigba, Head Information and Reference at the Consumer Affairs Bureau of NCC, in a remark noted that NCC looked forward to working with all stakeholders on cybercrimes and other challenges of telecommunications in order to achieve a more robust regulatory experience.
