In 2005 the Nigerian ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo
announced the formation of a cyber crime committee. The 15 member committee consisted of representatives
from both the Government and private sector, and were asked to design solutions
for Nigerian Internet based fraud and cyber crime. [1]
After many weeks of deliberations,
the committee presented a Draft Cyber Crime Act to the President, and the
committee formed the Nigerian Cyber crime working Group (NCWG), to accelerate
the implementation of its cyber crime research efforts, and to assist the
Nigeria National Assembly in the quick passage of a Cyber Crime Bill.
In summary, the Draft Nigerian Cyber
Crime Act provides the legal framework for the establishment of an independent
Cyber Crime Agency and for the Legislation concerning Cyber Crime and
Cyber-security. Basically, the Draft Act was divided into eight different
parts, namely:
a) Preliminary
b) Offences
c) Protection
and security of critical information and communication infrastructure.
d) Ancillary
and General Provisions
e) Cyber
Crime and Cyber Security Agencies Establishment
f) Functions
and powers of the agency
f) Financial
Provisions
Of
more interest here is the offences part of the Draft Act. This part covered a
very extensive set
of criminal activities listed as follows:
of criminal activities listed as follows:
1)
Unauthorized
access to compute, electronic or ancillary devices.
2)
Access with
intent to commit an offence
3)
Unauthorized
modification of the of any computer
4)
Illegal
communication using electronic messages.
5)
Illegal interception
6)
Data interference
7)
System
interference
8)
Misuse of devices
9)
Denial of service
10)
Email bombing
11)
Computer trespass
12)
Computer
vandalism
13)
Computer identity
and impersonation
14)
Attempt,
conspiracy and abetment.
15)
Duties of service
providers
16)
Record retention
by service providers
17)
Cyber squatting
18)
Computer
communication
19)
Cyber terrorism
20)
Intellectual
property
21)
Soliciting a
minor with a computer for unlawful sexual purposes
22)
Computer offences
against minors
23)
Other sexual
offences
It is clear that the above lists accommodate and even
goes beyond our earlier classification of cyber crimes types.
It is hoped that draft law which has been lying in the
National Assembly well be passed in no distant time to provide a comprehensive
legislation against cyber crime in Nigeria.
1 www.gncs.org
(visited June 20, 2011
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