NITDA announces activities for celebration of 2023 Cybersecurity Awareness Month

*Nigeria’s National Information Technology Development Agency, in partnership with relevant stakeholders, reels off a schedule of activities for celebration of the 2023 Cybersecurity Awareness Month, including grassroot awareness campaigns aimed at sensitising digital consumers on cyberthreats and measures to protect themselves in cyberspace

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

In accordance with its mandate, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has reeled off the schedule of activities for the celebration of the 2023 Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

The Information Technology (IT) regulatory agency, in the past years, disclosed it trained 3,242 Nigerians on basic and intermediate cybersecurity skills in partnership with CISCO.

ConsumerConnect reports the Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which holds every October, is a month set aside globally to educate and create cybersecurity awareness. 2023 marks the 20th in the series of collaborative awareness campaigns between public and private sector organisations globally.

Mrs. Hadiza Umar, Head of Corporate Affairs and External Relations at NITDA, in a statement issued Monday, October 9, 2023, said as part of activities
to mark this year’s National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the agency had lined up series of programmes specifically focused on sensitising the general public on cyberthreats, and necessary steps to protect ourselves in the ever-growing digital space.

The theme for the 2023 celebration is: “See Yourself in Cyber”, which highlights that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility.

The main purpose of this awareness campaign is to encourage the adoption of safe cyber hygiene.

According to NITDA, to achieve this effectively, Nigerian consumers need to accept, understand and be willing to apply these security measures to stay secure in cyberspace.

The regulatory agency stated this year’s awareness campaign focuses on sensitising the citizens on identifying and countering the following:

• Digital Misinformation and Disinformation;
• Social media attacks (Authentication and Social Engineering attacks);
• Phishing (Phishing scam websites, E-mail phishing/Business e-mail compromise);
• Cyber bullying;
• Online responsible behaviour; and
• Ransomware attacks.

The statement as well indicated that NITDA is partnering with relevant stakeholders to carry out grassroot awareness campaigns aimed at sensitising the general public on these cyberthreats and how to protect themselves in the digital space.

The Agency also noted Its collaboration with Galaxy Backbone Limited to disseminate specially-designed information flyers to public sector organisations.

Besides, NITDA in conjunction with O-range Cybersecurity Training Service Limited, has conducted Cybersecurity Training in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, where over 5,000 youths from various states participated in the programme.

Other activities lined up include:

• The NITDA-Cisco Cybersecurity Awareness Training aimed at training 4,000 youths in Ethical Hacking, Endpoint Security, Network Defense, and CyberThreat Management;

The call for application earlier opened October 2, 2023, while the portal for the virtual training will be opened on October 18, 2023;

• A two-day Innovation Challenge on Cybersecurity programme, designed to identify and showcase innovative technologies on cybersecurity with special focus identifying solutions that can be adopted in the public sector.

According to the agency, over 3,000 applications have been submitted thus far; and

• General Awareness programme focusing on sensitising the general public on NITDA’s initiatives and services such as:
• Trustmark system for online trading;
• Free Web Application Firewall for all MDAs;
• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI);
• Free Vulnerability Analysis and Penetration Testing (VAPT) for MDAs; and
• Monitoring of MDAs portals, social media monitoring and recovery, digital forensics, Cyber drill, and Cybersecurity Training.

NITDA, in the statement therefore, urged the private and public sector organisations as well as the general public to join in ensuring that the Nigerian cyberspace is safe and secure.

It stated: “Together, we can make the Nigerian cyberspace and the world at large safe and secure for all.”