Every action has an effect on you. This is referred to as causation. According to Wiki, cause and effect is influenced by one event, one process, one state or one object. This contributes to the production of another event or object. In addition, a process has many causes. These are also said to be causal factors.
Causality is an abstraction that indicates how the world progresses. The concept is more apt as an explanation of other concepts of progression than as something to be explained by others more basic. The concept is like those of agency and efficacy. For this reason, a leap of intuition may be needed to grasp it.
But in the case of Covid-19, you do not need intuition to understand it. The pandemic has consumed millions of lives. It has paralysed the human race. Every nation is in the claw of this health crisis. Almost all sector of the economy has been hit. As the claw of the pandemic tightens on the jugular of many nations, a state of emergency is declared: Stay at home! In the midst of this woe, some dubious beings are profiting by milking unsuspecting innocent citizens of their funds.
This is not surprising. Criminals follow the cash. Cash does not discriminate. Cash does not recognize creed. Cash does not diagnose class. So, as these cybercriminals attack, their victims are caught in a web. Like a spider, the criminals squeezed the life out of their prey. Paralysis as a result of shock. It is a cyber-war. The oracle didn’t see this. The crystal ball was cloudy. No one could have predicted the scale of deaths being caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. No one foretold the rise of cybercrime, which is the result of the Covid-19. No one anticipated the role of Fintech in the endless attack.
What we know, and this is coming after the fact, is that Covid-19 has pushed Nigerians from all walks of life to the Fintech shrine. Without candles and incense, they are worshipping the god of electronic transaction. This god, too, does not discriminate. It has no eyes. It cannot see. But it knows its destination. It understands codes. It delivers. With its seamless and limitless capacity to make payment transactions happen, Nigerians have adopted cashless transactions en-mass.
So whenever you are making the electronic transaction, watch your back. What you consider a strong password may not be strong after all. Modify it
That is why financial transactions have hit a new height in Nigeria. The value of electronic transactions has risen by 21 per cent. A total of N319.99 trillion transaction value was recorded in the third quarter of 2020. In the second quarter, it was N263.8 trillion. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, a total volume of 2.78 billion transactions valued at N319.9 trillion was recorded on “electronic payment channels in the Nigeria banking.”
Increase in the usage of electronic banking isn’t the cause of the cyber-attack. It is a result of the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. The cybercriminals are only following the trails created by millions of Nigerians who have suddenly discovered the alternative payment channels. They are riding the electronic financial transaction wave. They are obeying the Covid-19 social distancing rules. Or could it be because Fintech offers an unconventional payment method? When the Covid-19 roared, cybercriminals prowled. When Nigerians hit the electronic banking buttons, cybercriminals pounced.
That is why the Managing Director of SystemSpecs, John Obaro, warned that as the pace of digital transformation ramps up with increased use of data and cloud technology by organisations and governments, “there is a need for a renewed focus on cybersecurity to ensure data protection and privacy”.
Obaro opined that the increasing spate of cyber-attacks and the role of malicious insiders have indicated that traditional approaches to data security are no longer sufficient. To stem the tide, he warned individuals, organisations and governments to be “more steps ahead of cyber attackers.” Obaro spoke during the second edition of the Art of Technology conference themed Smart Data, Smarter Lagos held in Lagos.
I am sure you know that malicious actors have access to your device and billions of other interconnected machines with ransomware, phishing, data leakage, and hacking as well as insider threat. In your case, insider threat can be your friends, family and friends-turned-foes who have access to your phone, laptop and tablet. They constitute some of the most common global scourges to the cyberspace.
So whenever you are making the electronic transaction, watch your back. What you consider a strong password may not be strong after all. Modify it. That email from an unknown source in your box is phishing. Don’t click the link. The festive periods are here. The cyber-attackers have families. They have children. They have friends. They too will celebrate the festivity. Therefore they are lurking. They are looking for you. They are expecting you to let down your guard. Don’t trust any ‘foreign’ email.
The cybercriminals are only following the trails created by millions of Nigerians who have suddenly discovered the alternative payment channels. They are riding the electronic financial transaction wave.
In the age of artificial intelligence and deep learning, behavioural analytics and embedded hardware authentication, zero-trust is your best security model. Zero-trust will help you to tackle the threats of cyber rats. As you perform your legitimate online transaction in the comfort of your home either on Remita or Paylink, Flutterwave or Paystack, bank applications or automated teller machines, maintain zero-trust.
Aside from this, some other security challenges being faced by organisations and government today is in the use of the cloud. To overcome this, Obaro advised the continued use of big data, video analytics and predictive analysis to detect and resolve cybersecurity threats. Cyber threats have always been here. What we are experiencing is an increase in the volume and frequency of attacks. This is a result of the huge number of Nigerians on the internet. The internet is now the battleground.
Be prepared. The cyberwar is not over. For as long as electronic transaction keeps making it easy and quick for you to fulfil your promise, the cyber rats will be on your trail. It is a sign of the time. It is induced by the Covid-19 crisis. Fintech is not the architect of cybercrime. Fintech offers intelligence-based actions. You are not the only beneficiary of these actions. The bad boys benefit, too. The responsibility, therefore, lies on you to thwart their evil acts. That way, their actions will have no effect on your livelihood. Just as the Covid-19 pandemic is having an effect on you and me.
*Olaegbe ([email protected]; Tweet: @RarzackO Skype:rarzackolaegbe)
