NITDA’S New DG/CEO, Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami warns of cyber attacks in Nigeria (Image credit: NITDA)
Companies across Nigeria have been warned about the reality that the global wave of ransomeware attacks, namely Petya/GoldenEye and WanaCry, will almost certainly hit Nigeria as well in the not too distant future. This warning was issued this week by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), this according to Nigerian Communications Week.
The recent spates of cyber-attacks, not only encrypts files but also encrypts hard drives, rendering entire computer systems inaccessible.
Ransomware, is according to Dr Isa Ali Pantami, Director General/CEO of NITDA, spreading quickly and has paralysed businesses across the world with reports indicating that countries affected so far include Ukraine, Denmark, Russia, the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Poland and the USA.
"While our CERRT team are working round the clock along with other stakeholders to come up with effective defence mechanism for the Nigerian cyberspace, we are calling on Network Administrators in the public and private sectors as well as individuals to take the following measures recommended during the recent WannaCry attack: isolate the system from your network to prevent the threat from further spreading; remove the system from Network; and do not use flash/pen drive, external drives on the System to copy files to other systems", the DG said.
As a general precautionary measure, Dr. Pantami urged organisations, especially Government Agencies to regularly update their operating systems with the latest patches; regularly update their software applications; turn off unnecessary/unneeded features; avoid downloading and opening unsolicited files and attachments; adjust security software to scan compressed or archived files; and avoid indiscriminate use wireless connections, such as Bluetooth or infrared ports.
Staff Writer