To mark the 2023 National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the agency has lined up a series of programmes specifically focused on sensitising the general public on cybersecurity threats and steps necessary to protect people in the ever-growing digital space.
Activities for the celebration of this year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month have been unveiled by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in line with the agency’s mandate.
Last year, the agency trained 3,242 on basic and intermediate cybersecurity skills in partnership with CISCO.
Tagged Cybersecurity Awareness Month, every month of October is set aside globally to educate and create cybersecurity awareness.
This year marks the 20th in the series of collaborative awareness campaigns between public and private sector organisations globally.
Mrs. Hadiza Umar, Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, NITDA said in a statement on Monday that to mark the 2023 National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the agency has lined up a series of programmes specifically focused on sensitising the general public on cybersecurity threats and steps necessary to protect people in the ever-growing digital space.
Themed ‘See Yourself in Cyber,’ which highlights that cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility, the main purpose of this awareness campaign according to Hadiza Umar, is to encourage the adoption of safe cyber hygiene.
She stated that to achieve this effectively, citizens need to accept, understand and be willing to apply these security measures to stay secure.
Digital TimesNG understands that this year’s awareness campaign focuses on sensitising citizens to identifying and countering digital misinformation and disinformation; and social media attacks (Authentication and Social Engineering attacks).
The campaign will also focus further on sensitizing citizens to identifying Phishing (Phishing scam websites, Email phishing/Business email compromise); Cyberbullying; Online responsible behaviour; and Ransomware attacks.
“NITDA is partnering with relevant stakeholders to carry out grassroots awareness campaigns aimed at sensitising the general public of these cyber threats and how to protect themselves.
“Specifically, the Agency is collaborating with Galaxy Backbone to disseminate specially designed information flyers to public sector organisations.
“The Agency had, in conjunction with O-range Cybersecurity Training Service Limited, conducted Cybersecurity Training in Ilorin, Kwara State, where more than 5,000 youths from various states participated,” Hadiza Umar said in the press release.
Other activities lined up for the campaign include the NITDA-Cisco Cybersecurity Awareness Training aimed at training 4,000 youths in Ethical Hacking, Endpoint Security, Network Defense, and Cyber Threat Management. The call for applications was opened on the 2nd of October while the portal for the virtual training will be opened on 18th October 8, 2023.
There will also be a two-day Innovation Challenge on Cybersecurity programme, designed to identify and showcase innovative technologies on cybersecurity with special focus on identifying solutions that can be adopted in the public sector. So far, over 3,000 applications have been submitted.
The campaign will also include a General Awareness programme focusing on sensitising the general public on NITDA’s initiatives and services such as Trustmark system for online trading; Free Web Application Firewall for all MDAs; Public Key Infrastructure (PKI); Free Vulnerability Analysis and Penetration Testing (VAPT) for MDAs; and Monitoring of MDAs portals, social media monitoring and recovery, digital forensics, Cyber drill, and Cybersecurity Training.
NITDA, therefore, calls on private and public sector organisations as well as the general public to join it in ensuring that the Nigerian Cyberspace is safe and secure.
“Together, we can make the Nigerian cyberspace and the world at large safe and secure for all,” Hadiza Umar concluded in the statement.