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Nigeria fraud analysis shows a moderate shift towards Mobile and USSD channels with 50% of all fraud attempts perpetrated through social engineering.
This was disclosed recently by Niyi Ajao (Deputy Managing Director, NIBSS) at the Think_Nnovation 2020 Cybersecurity global Conference organized by FITC in collaboration with NIBSS with the theme: Combating Cybercrime: Strategies for Strengthening Emerging Markets.
In a detailed presentation made as the lead panellist at the first plenary session with the Sub-theme: Cybersecurity and Financial Services: Imperatives, Risks and Control, he revealed that the total number of fraud attempts in the first halves of 2019 and 2020 showed a 104% growth year on year.
The virtual session which was moderated by Adedoyin Odunfa (CEO, Digital Jewels), had other industry experts like Griffith Ehebha (Chief risk officer, Interswitch), Favour Oyewole (Chief Information Security Officer, Access Bank Plc) and Chris Wilson, (Senior Financial Sector Expert, IMF) on the panel.
Speaking on observed local and global trends, Niyi Ajao highlighted that e-fraud is growing as a result of increasing financial inclusion and e-payments adoption as more sophisticated tools are increasingly readily available to rogue players who are after unauthorized access to data.
He affirmed that the Nigerian payments system remains one of the most advanced in the world and the increase in transaction processing speed and convenience results in the exposure of additional vectors for fraudulent transactions; stating that the UK and the US saw as much as a 300% and 90% growth in fraud rates with the advent of the faster payments network and the growth in the use of Zelle respectively.
“From the month of March when the lockdown started we have seen increased attempts by fraudsters and Cyber-attackers on our systems and that’s across the globe for that matter. Unfortunately, we’ve seen increased attacks even as governments strive to give palliatives to citizens. As businesses go digital, fraud will not only follow suit, but will also become more complex and lethal”, he stated.
On key strategy for Cybersecurity defences, he recommended security education and awareness as a critical success factor and harped on the imperative of organizations to prioritize the severity of cyber-crimes and the tools to fight cyberattacks.
While submitting that data remains the most important tool to aid the never ending anti-fraud battle, he acknowledged that machine learning and artificial intelligence are vital to organization’s cybersecurity defences, as it has the potential to help organizations detect and respond faster.
While highlighting the activities of NIBSS as the industry coordinator of banks’ anti-fraud desks, facilitating information sharing and coordination during fraud investigations, Niyi Ajao stated that, “Generally speaking, the trends we are seeing is that banking services adoption is moving from the physical bank branch, even away from the internet to mobile and USSD channels and the fraud we are seeing too is following that same path”.
Acknowledging that social engineering remained the principal means of perpetrating fraud, he stressed that customer education remains the most important means of mitigating social engineering attacks, urging organizations to make it a top priority.
He further charged that the inaction of a single institution in the transaction chain potentially undermines the measures taken by all others and negatively impact the entire ecosystem.
In submission, he stated that ultimately, the cybersecurity battle can only be won when organizations institute a well rounded strategy involving sensitization, investments in well suited technologies, risk management, effective governance and industry wide collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
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