With the overall cost of cyber-attacks pegged globally at $400 billion in 2015 and with the growing frequency and intensity of threats, the need to pro-actively address cybersecurity threats has become critically important to most Enterprises. In a 2014 report published by the UK Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the annual cost of cybercrime to Nigeria was projected at N127 billion annually or 0.08 per cent of GDP. This looming threat has been decried by Nigeria’s leading security operatives, including the National Security Adviser, Babagana Munguno who lamented the cost of cybercrime to government, economic activities, security and vital infrastructure.
Advocates for improved e-security in the country have called on policy makers and government agencies to ensure that data is better protected with focus on the institutions in sensitive sectors including government, financial, oil and gas, and telecommunications. Threats to financial institutions appear to be higher than others, as the recent increase in financial inclusion and cashless banking across the country is generating large amounts of data and placing billions of naira in financial assets at play. Regulatory agencies suggest that between 2004 and 2014, Nigerian banks lost over N165 billion via electronic fraud and cybercrime.
Findings from a recent report from Websense Security Labs found that attacks against financial services institutions are four times higher than that of companies in other industries – the highest of any sector. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attackers attempt to overwhelm online financial services with malicious traffic from multiple sources, aimed at making such services unavailable. These attacks continue to evolve with cyber-criminals targeting government and corporate systems with a frightening level of sophistication and frequency. Organizations cannot afford to be complacent about their cyber-security and defenses as traditional methods of detection have been rendered obsolete. The situation has alarmed governments to such levels that billions of dollars have been committed to ensuring cyber-security and state security apparatus at the highest levels are addressing these issues.
Leading the fight in Nigeria’s business landscape is MainOne, West Africa’s premier connectivity and data center provider, which has partnered with Radware, a global leader in cyber-security, to develop a solution specifically designed to improve organizations’ ability to effectively respond to cyber-attacks. This Managed Security (DDoS Protection Service) provides optimal protection to meet the unique needs of enterprise networks and applications. The service is an always-on service that is easily deployed to help organizations assure the mitigation of DDoS attacks and service assurance of their networks and data centers. The solution provides the shortest time to protection as traffic is continuously routed through MainOne’s DDoS protection systems with minimal customer involvement for unlimited number of attacks, size of attacks and attack duration. As part of its plans to launch the DDoS protection service, the company plans an Enterprise Workshop with Radware in August for CEOs, CTOs and other IT decision makers.
Without doubt, businesses with a desire to promote global best practices in information, computer and internet security and stay ahead of threats will need to adopt MainOne’s DDOS protection.
