Nigeria has long been a haven for highly talented and successful hackers, scammers, and their many spin off groups. Having developed this negative cyber reputation, Nigeria has in recent years enacted cyber laws to combat these groups and help protect their businesses and reputation. These laws were recently used for unfortunate political purposes, yet demonstrate a positive direction toward improved cyber security efforts.
- Nigeria has a historical negative reputation for cyber hackers and scammers.
- New cyber security legislation has been enacted to curb cybercrime.
- Nigeria has recently arrested a popular blogger under the cyber laws, which was viewed as a political more than law enforcement measure.
While our Wapack Labs African Desk sees Nigeria making real progress in cyber security, we still see a country facing an increasing domestic and international threat in all domains of cyber security. When considerations of terrorism and the ongoing Boko Haram activities are brought into the equation, the pursuit of bloggers seems quite petty at best, and at worst, negligently misguided. While Nigeria continues to make very real steps forward in cyber security, it also tends to take a few steps backwards along the way. This information is being supplied for your situational awareness.
Publication Date: 3 December 2016
Handling Requirements: Traffic light protocol (TLP) GREEN
Attribution/Threat Actors: Hackers & Scammers
Actor Type: Adversary capabilities have been assessed as Tier III
Potential Targets: Worldwide targets using Nigerian networks; connections to terrorism
Past Reporting: DOC-4283, DOC-4002, DOC-4486
The full report is available on our Executive Readboard.
