Acting Administrator DBI, Viola Askia Usoro

The acting administrator of the Digital Bridge Institute, DBI, Viola Askia Usoro has called for a focus on ICT skills and institutional capacity building in the fight against cyber-crime and cyber- attacks.

Askia made the call at the 2019 Cisco African Academy Cyber Security Conference for English West and Central Africa in Lagos.

According to her, “The Cyber Security Framework underscores the importance of cyber security. Most businesses try to prevent cyber-attacks by securing their networks using various Antivirus Software, establishing more secure networks and so forth, yet statistics show that a huge percentage of cyber breaches result from human errors thus re-emphasising the need for awareness creation and capacity building. If we don’t focus on this now we’ll be left behind in the cyber security fight”.

She noted that DBI was established by the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, for the purpose of ICT capacity building across all economic sectors in Nigeria and in pursuant to the mandate, “the Institute has in the past decade and a half, championed functional and innovative ICT education covering cyber security and other emerging”.

To underscoring the importance of ICT skills development she said, “As more and more organisations adopt new ICT technologies in their operations and processes, Cybercrimes or cyber-attacks have become the greatest threats to every business as hundreds of attacks hit computer systems everywhere around the world, with an estimated 54 percent of companies the world over, experiencing at least one cyber-attack every year”.

She added that in 2018 DBI and other industry stakeholders formulated the National Operational Standards, NOS, in ICT trade areas. “These standards once approved by the National Board for technical education (NBTE) will form part of the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) to help regulate trainers and professionals in the ICT industry in Nigeria”.

This she says underscores 2015 DBI became one of the six centres of excellence in Africa in the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, ICT Academy Network and one of our focus areas is cyber security where DBI will offer training on Cyber security and Cyber Threat Mitigation Strategies.

Report by: Theresa Igata