The Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) has revealed that 80 percent of all financial crimes in Nigeria are cybercrime related, stressing that the rise in cybercrime activities in Nigeria is alarming and worrisome..
The Commission, while giving opening remark at the Cyber secure Nigeria Conference, which was organized by the Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN) in Lagos, specifically disclosed that as at September, 2021, the Commission has recorded about Nine Hundred and Seventy Eight (978) convictions out of this, 80% is connected to cybercrime and cybercrime related offences.
“I want to authoritatively state that as at September, 2021, the Commission has recorded about Nine Hundred and Seventy Eight (978) convictions out of this, 80% is connected to cybercrime and cybercrime related offences,” said Chairman of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa.
Bawa, who was represented by Mr. Suleiman Jijiwa – Acting Head, Cybercrime Session, Lagos at the conference with the theme ‘The future of Cyber security in Nigeria’s Digital Transformation’, believes that the growing rate of cybercrime is mostly triggered by the huge financial gains on the side of the perpetrators.
He added that the society, which is increasingly relying on the internet and other tools to engage in communication and conduct business activities among other benefits is rapidly changing to what we called “the e-society” where everything is done electronically like; e-payment, e-voting, e-banking, e-ticketing, e-registration amongst other e-services.
This development, according to him has made our e-dealings vulnerable to cyber attacks and negative consequences of security threats.
Cyber security experts believed that financial damages and losses will reach Six Trillion Dollars ($6, 000, 000, 000, 000.00) by the end of this year. Studies have shown that cyber attacks are among the fastest growing crimes across the globe. Cyber security expert predicted that before the end of 2021, there will be a cyber attack incident in every 11
seconds, this is nearly twice that of the year 2011 which was every 19 seconds.
Equally, Cyber attacks in general causes a huge financial loss to the victims. Research has shown that cybercrime cost business, government agencies and consumers more than $1 Trillion ($1, 000, 000, 000, 000.00) in 2020. This is around one percent of the global GDP, while about $945 Billion was lost to cyber incidents; $145 Billion was spent on cyber security. This cost keeps on increasing yearly.
