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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is planning to develop an industry wide Security Operations Centre (SOC) to serve as a shared service platform that will provide cyber intelligence gathering, dissemination and crises response for the financial sector.

This was disclosed on Thursday, 10th September by Mrs Aishah Ahmad (Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria) 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.

Aishah Ahmad, Deputy Governor // Financial System Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria

The virtual event which boasts of 25 Speakers and over 1,000 attendees from 6 continents of the world had Mr. Phang Hong Lim (Senior Director, Supervisory Guidance, Toronto Centre) as the keynote speaker, Chizor Malize (MD/CEO, FITC) as the host and other seasoned thought leaders like Ademola Adebise (MD/CEO, Wema Bank), Niyi Ajao (Deputy Managing Director, NIBSS), Adedoyin Odunfa (CEO, Digital Jewels), Tunde Coker (CEO, Rack Centre), Adewale Obadare (COO, Digital Encode), Chike Ive Meme (CEO, Environ), Nkemdilim U. Begho (CEO, Future Software Resources), among others on the panel.

In her opening remark as the special guest, Aishah Ahmad harped on the systemic risk concerns of cyber related threats which has consistently featured on the high impact, high likelihood quadrant of the global risk landscape with huge impact on the financial sector, given the critical role of banks in financial intermediation in a very increasingly highly connected financial system, with potential of undermining stakeholders confidence in the overall financial system stability. She also stated that the strategies and consequent policies to tackle cybercrime is a top priority for the Central Bank of Nigeria.

While providing background contexts, she stated that, “Cyber related risks have been a systemic risk concern for all of us stakeholders, policy makers and operators, individuals and users of the financial systems since the turn of this century. Deepening integration of digital technologies into almost every single facets of our lives has radically transformed the way we communicate, socialize, learn, do business and conduct financial transactions.”

She further stated that, “With over 50% of the world’s population now online and two thirds, owning a mobile phone that is linked to the internet and the rampant spread of the 5G networks, quantum computing, artificial intelligence and the like, the potential risk exposures of all of these innovations can only be better imagined.

According to Aishah Ahmad, a recent World Economic Forum global risk report in 2019 ranked data fraud backed cyberattacks as one of the top five on the global risk scale over a ten-year horizon; with these two risks (Data fraud and Cyberattacks) consistently featuring on the high impact, high likelihood quadrant of the global risk landscape.

Speaking further on the findings of the World Economic Forum global risk report, she stated that, “But for me, I think what was most insightful is that it identified cyberattack as the second most concerned risk for doing business over the next ten years. It was important to situate it against this background, because it was against this context of rapid technology innovation and heightened cybersecurity risks that the Corona virus pandemic emerged”.

At the interactive event monitored by Regtech Africa, the apex bank’s boss stated that the August 2020 report on ‘Cybercrime – the Covid-19 impact’, issued by Interpol showed that cyber criminals, just as intuitively expected, are developing and boosting their attacks at an alarming rate, understandably exploiting the fear and economic uncertainties created by the pandemic.

On the overall impact on the financial sector, she stated that, “This is critical for everyone but very important for the financial sector. It is particularly susceptible to Cybercrime given the critical role of banks in financial intermediation in a very increasingly highly connected financial system. Aside significant potential financial loses, the sector is exposed to potential compromises and loss of customer data and associated impacts on operational and reputational damages all of which undermines stakeholders’ confidence in the financial system stability”.

While highlighting the proactive steps taken by the CBN in the issuance of a risk-based cybersecurity framework for Deposit Money Banks and Payment Service Providers in 2018, Aishah Ahmad reiterated the Central Bank’s commitment to strengthen the regulatory supervisory framework to ensure optimum resilience in the financial system.

Continuing, Aishah Ahmad stated that, “The framework prescribes amongst other things annual cyber resilience self-assessment to proactively identify and remediate weaknesses and mandatory incidence reporting to normalize sharing of best practices across the industry. We also found in our engagement with banks as we launched and implemented this framework that a number of Nigerian banks actually have in place Security Operations Centres, popularly referred to as SOCs in line with global best practices”.

She however expressed optimism that though, the issue is complex and evolving with a lot of lessons to learn, increased vigilance can be achieved through adaptability and staying ahead of industry and policy making engagements.

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