CBN, ePayment Stakeholders Reduce Electronic Fraud by 65%

The various initiatives Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed money deposit banks and e-payment services providers to implement have helped to reduce fraud committed through the e-payment channel by 65 percent, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek has learnt.

Obadare Adewale, chief operating officer, Digital Encode, an information security management and assurance services provider, Digital Encode is actively involved in implementing security solutions for banks such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCIDSS) certification framework, told Nigeria CommunicationsWeek that the remaining 35 percent is what CBN and e-payment services providers are targeting in the new efforts which include cybersecurity operation centres this according to him will assist banks to proactively monitor their enterprise networks and to swiftly respond to external and internal intrusion into their networks.

“Banks need to have cybersecurity operation centre and synchronize it with existing global operation centres for effective performance. More so, fighting cybercrime is a continuous exercise that banks need to continue to recertify their security standards such as PCIDSS on new version; because threat landscape is changing as such they need to prepare themselves for any threat technique,” he said.

Adewale added that in further effort to reduce the 35 percent, that CBN set-up the Nigeria Electronic Fraud forum. According to him, ‘this is a collaborative as well as information exchange platform for all stakeholders in the e-payment ecosystem to share information and capacity building to fight cybercrime’.

Ahmed Adesanya, IT Security and Connectivity consultant said that it will be difficult to stamp out electronic fraud because technology is not static, ‘as technology evolves cybercriminal will exploit the new technology to attack and steal money. The efforts of CBN in collaboration with banks and e-payment services provider to stamp out electronic fraud can never be enough until protection is total’.

He cited instance with PCIDSS version 3 that is targeting protection for merchants and other services provider such as telecommunications provider that provides connectivity in the e-payment ecosystem, as another angle to fight against hackers which was not taken care of in other initiatives that have been carried out in the ecosystem.

Nigeria CommunicationsWeek recalled some of the initiatives CBN has made to include industry wide adoption of EMV chip and pin card, completion of Control Objectives for Information and Technology (COBIT ) certification a framework that involves the definition of an IT strategic plan and focuses on incorporating IT and business management in the translation of business requirements into service offerings, as well as the development of strategies to deliver these services in a transparent and effective manner.