Nigeria Communications Commission, NCC, on Thursday said it was stepping up its fight against cybercrimes and internet fraudsters in the country.
Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau of the commission, Felicia Onwuegbuchulam, disclosed this in Abakaliki, Ebonyi state capital, during 105th edition of consumer outreach programme of the commission with the theme “Mitigating Effects of Cybercrimes: The Role of Telecom Consumers”.
She expressed worry that the activities of the perpetrators were on the increase in the country with dire consequences on the populace.
According to her, many people have lost their lives, monies, personal identity and privacies to cyber criminals which made the commission to adopt measures to curtail their activities.
Mrs Onwuegbuchulam explained that the commission was partnering with security agents, National Security Adviser and other relevant stakeholders to tackle the menace.
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” 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,” she said.
“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.
Mrs Onwuegbuchulam said the Commission is 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”.
The Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs Bureau of the commission, Ismail Adedigba, said the commission had 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.
