By Martin Ekpeke
Nigeria’s IT Clearing House, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), says it has given a clean sheet to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), having fulfilled the instruction to upgrade its ICT Security and Systems Infrastructure.
The upgrade by the apex bank is a response to the recent security alert raised by the Dr Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the Director General/CEO, on potential cyber-attacks likely to be experienced, targeting banking, health and other systems, power and transportation systems, as well as other critical national infrastructure.
The CBN, in its efforts towards mitigating these threats, especially in the country’s financial institutions, initiated the upgrade of some of its projects. A move, Pantami commended in his clearance letter to CBN. “We want to commend CBN for the proactive manner in handling these threats. We also want to reiterated NITDA’s continued support for all initiatives aimed at ensuring that the country’s cyberspace is safe and secure,” he said.
According to a statement signed by NITDA’s Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, Mrs Hadiza Umar, the projects cleared include:
- Enterprise Network Security – Gateway Security Project, aimed at upgrading the Bank’s network security appliances and ensures that network security appliances are highly available and provides comprehensive real-time protection against advanced threats.
- The Intelligence Security Operations Center project that is aimed at providing a dedicated center, technology and team for continuous monitoring of the Bank’s network to prevent, detect and deal with Cyber-attacks.
- Implementation of a Network Access Control (NAC) Solution – a security approach designed to restrict the availability of network resources to endpoint devices – aimed at enhancing infrastructure security as well as limit potential effects from emerging security threats.
- The Identity and Access Management Solution project aimed at ensuring that the right individuals access the right resources/applications at the right times and for the right reasons.