NCC moves to end cyber crimes

Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC), yesterday said it was stepping up its fight against cyber crimes in the country.

The commission said many people have lost their lives, monies, personal identity and privacies through cybercrime which gave rise to its decision to stem the tide.

Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau of the commission, Mrs. Felicia Onwuegbuchulam disclosed this in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital during 105th edition of the consumer outreach programme of the commission with the theme “Mitigating Effects of Cybercrimes: The Role of Telecom Consumers”.

She explained that the commission was partnering with security agents, National Security Adviser and other relevant stakeholders to tackle the menace.

Onwuegbuchulam said “cybercrime gives big concern to the commission. People lose their money, people their personal identity, people lose their privacies and on the process, they are either duped or even harmed or killed.

“The war against cybercrime may not have been won but we are doing everything humanly possible to stem the tide, it is an ongoing thing. As they are coming up, you are dressing them and new ones are coming up.

“The greatest achievement in this fight is empowering the consumers to understand that these problems exist, what they are, what they supposed to do, how they can mitigate it when it occurs. We are putting in place technology that will also address the issue on the technical side.

“So, we are looking at this issue from the technical aspect, looking at it from the regulatory aspect and looking at it from the consumer perspective so that collectively all of us will tackle this menace”.

On his part, Deputy Director Consumer Affairs Bureau of the commission, Alhaji Ismail Adedigba said the commission has initiated a process to establish an Internet Industry Code of Practice for internet providers in the country as a result of an unprecedented increase in the usage of Internet-based solutions and services.

“the Internet Code is a regulatory intervention expected to secure the country’s cyberspace against imminent threats from cyber attackers as well as addressing issues such as online child protection, privacy and data protection among others”, he said.