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Cybercrime: Nigerians fleece foreigners $9.3b annually

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In from Smart Ali . . .
Nigeria’s contribution to cybercrime worldwide has been estimated at $9.3 billion annually, President, Cyber Security Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), Mr. Remi Afon has said.‎
Afon who made this disclosure on Thursday in Abuja, said activities of the cyber criminals have integrated from phishing emails to “actual exploit through malware.”
While giving a bird’s eye view of the quantum of crime, the CSEAN boss said: “It is estimated by Dutch investigation firm Ultrascan that Nigeria-based cyber crime is costing around $9.3 billion (£5.5bn) globally each year.”
According to him, though there were no available statistics on volume of malware being generated from the country but “based on research by Palo Alto Networks in 2014 and fire eye 2015, activities of cyber criminals in Nigeria is now shifting from phishing emails to actual exploit through malware.

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“Cyber crime became rampant in Nigeria due to lack of appropriate cyber crime law in the past. The cyber crime bill has now been passed into law around mid of this year. With the new cyber crime law, it will become easier for law enforcement agents to prosecute cyber criminals unlike in the past,” he said.
The bill introduced on July 28, 2011, was targeted to check activities of internet scammers, who had projected the country negatively, both locally and internationally.
However, Afon emphasised the need to better equip law enforcement agencies with the necessary skills and tools to be able to apprehend and prosecute cyber criminals.
“The cyber crime bill has now been passed into law. With the new cyber crime law, it will become easier for law enforcement agents to prosecute cyber criminals unlike in the past. In most cases it would be observed that the banks emails are not spoofed which shows the amateurish level of the cyber criminals. By simply expanding the senders email address, the yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail account of the sender becomes visible,” he added.

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