The spate of penetration by cybercrime cooks into the systems and information of their target victims in recent times appears unlimited.
The unseen culprits, who gain access to the private e–documents of unsuspecting victims, have refined their tools and become more stealthy, targeting specific organisations and individuals to reap financial or political gains.
Several individuals, who have at one instance or the other fallen victims of the nefarious activities of professional hackers, have suffered untold hardship with little or no security intervention to address the trend till date.
At the maiden edition of ESET’s ‘Security Day in Nigeria’, a conferencce that focused on the economic importance of cybersecurity, Mr. Femi Ake, Country Manager, ESET, lamented the growing spate of cybercriminals in the country, which has rendered a number of victims financially distorted.
The forum was held because the Information Technology threat landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years in the region.
Ake confirmed that, in the past, the majority of cyberattacks were simply meant to make headline news but today, “attacks have become more sophisticated and stealthy, targeting specific organizations and individuals to reap financial or political gain.
“Professional hackers continuously develop new tactics to gain unauthorised, undetected, and ongoing access to an organisation’s systems and information,” he said.
At the conference, participants were exposed to issues of security threats and how they could manage them.
The ESET ‘Security Day’ forum is known in North and Latin America as a gathering of independent and ESET security experts with IT professionals, businessmen and the public. More than 5,000 people around the world have attended the forum in different countries.
The IT security conference was not limited to ESET research, as independent and non-ESET affiliated IT security experts provided presentations and led discussions on cyber-threats and data protection issues which affect the current business environment.
By Patrick Aigbokhan