Cyber criminals invade West African countries, says EFCC

. . . Region plans to harmonise cybercrime legislation by 2011
Ben Uzor Jr

Nigerian cyber criminals, fleeing from the heightened surveillance and crackdown from the anti-graft agency - the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), have moved en mass to other West African countries. This mass exodus of the cyber criminals to neighbouring countries was confirmed to BusinessDay by Farida Waziri, chairman of the EFCC, in an exclusive interview in Abuja.

Waziri told BusinessDay the development was disturbing and that Nigeria would not allow a few misguided individuals running from the law to cause undue hardship to its neighbours. Total loss from all referred cases globally was $559.7 million in 2009. This is up from the $264.6million in total reported losses in 2008, according to the 2009 Internet Crime Report.

To help the agency and its counterparts in West Africa win the war against the criminals, Waziri said governments in the sub-region must, as a matter of expediency, begin to adopt common measures for combating cyber crime. The measures, the anti-graft czar noted, should include the establishment and harmonisation of legislation on cyber crime and electronic evidence throughout the region.

Sources close to the secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) informed Business Day that plans in this direction were already underway and by June 2011, legislation on cyber crime will be approved by all presidents in the sub-region.“We have noticed a movement of cyber criminals from Nigeria to neighbouring West African states, and it is important that political leadership all through West Africa adopt common measures and strategies for combating cyber crime.

“We must continue to collaborate to evolve common strategies that are beneficial to the sub-region. Today, Nigeria and Ghana are within the top 10 global cyber crime index. Our goal is to ensure that West African countries drop out of the top 10,” Waziri told BusinessDay. She argued that while the growing number of underwater cable systems on the West African coast will spring up new business opportunities, as well as improve the region’s digital index, “it could also expose the sub-region to increased cyber crimes as new sophisticated computer fraud schemes will emerge rapidly,” Waziri declared.

Cyber crime is acknowledged to be on the increase globally, and the Internet Crime Complaint Centre has recorded a 22 percent increase in criminal activities between 2008 and 2009. This, it is believed, could be because more people have access to the internet. “What should be frightening for us is that only about 20 percent of the West African population has access to internet connectivity and it may well mean that if we have the level of connectivity of Europe and North America, we will perpetually remain in the top 10. The challenge for West Africa is how to put in place remedial measures that will ensure that with higher connectivity, crime does not necessarily follow suit,” she said.

Commenting on some of the critical milestones the Commission has achieved with regard to addressing the menace of cyber crime, the EFCC boss stressed, at the first West African Cyber crime Conference held in Abuja, that since the inception of the Commission, the EFCC had secured over 300 convictions in cyber crime while there are over 500 cases pending before various courts across the country. “We have recently set up the Transaction Clearance Platform and within a year, it has stopped over 3, 000 cyber crimes and advised over 400, 000 potential victims,” she explained.

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