Observations
An evaluation of cyber crimes as well as its legal and
economic effects reveals some inadequacies and lapses in the Nigerian law which
calls for urgent response to save and consolidate the benefits and
opportunities brought about by ICT and internet. We discuss at the background
to this work certain innovations brought about by internet which seem to have
been downplayed by the negative effect of cyber crimes. Some of these cyber
crimes are listed and explain in this research. In addition, the legal frameworks
for the prevention of cyber crimes are equally considered and we made some
steps in outlining and analyzing some negative impacts of cyber crime in
Nigeria.
In doing these, we made the
following observations.
1. Nigeria as a country has joined the
digital world as one can notice the evidence of impact of ICT in almost every
home. The proliferation of ICT in Nigeria has brought with it tremendous positive
changes in socio-economic growth and development within the country. In fact
society in general is increasingly relying on ICT and internet to conduct
business, manage industrial activities, and engage in personal communication
among other numerous benefits too many to mention. Paradoxically, ICT has also
evolved to become a sophisticated tool in the hands of criminals for
perpetrating different forms of cyber crimes. Unintended issues such as e-mail
scams, identity theft, child pornography, cyber squatting, hacking, internet
piracy, money laundering, are some of the vices that have become recurring
indices on the internet. Nigeria as a country has a lion share of these vices
as the rate of internet crime has grown rapidly thereby relegating the
relevance and benefits of the ICT itself.
2. It is observed that crime per se
remains elusive and ever strives to hide itself in the face of development and
civilization. As measures and techniques for detecting crimes and criminals advance,
criminals also look for means of hiding from these measures – internet
currently serve as a hiding place for fraudsters who has have simply migrated
from the streets to an electronic platform offered by the world wide web.]
3. It is equally observed that majority of
the cyber crimes perpetrialed in Nigeria generally are targeted at individuals
and not necessarily computer systems, hence they require less technical
expertise. The damage done manifest itself in the real world. Human weakness
such as greed and gullibility are generally exploited. The damage dealt is
largely psychological and financial.
4. Computer crime can broadly be defined
as criminal activity involving an information technology infrastructure:
Including illegal access or unauthorized access: illegal interception that
involves technical means of non-public transmissions of computer data to, from
or within a computer system; data interference that include unauthorized damaging, deletion,
deterioration, alteration or suppression of computer data: system interference
that is interfering with the functioning of a computer system by inputing,
transmitting, damaging, deleting, deteriorating, altering or suppressing
computer data: misuse of devices, forgery, and electronic fraud.1
Cyber crime can also be seen as
“unlawful acts using the computer as either a tool or a target or both”.2 This no doubt represents as simple yet
sturdy definition of cyber crime. A broad, yet vague attempt was made in
section 3 (h) of the Telecommunications and Postal Offences Decree No. 21 1995[3] to define a cyber crime.
Any person who inter alia
engages in computer fraud or does anything relating to fake payments, whether
or not the payment is credited to the account of an operator or the account of
a subscriber is guilty of an offence.
This Law has been repealed by the
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Act4
and curiously the offence in the repealed law in not mentioned in the new Act.
5. It is further observed that presently
Nigeria has no specific law to combat cyber crime. The criminals are just
operating freely without any specific law to checkmate their illicit activities.
However, there are laws though not directly related to the cyber crimes but in
a way, can to a limited extent be used to deal with this issue.5 For instance if A steals B’s credit
card details (his identity and potentially his money), A uses his internet
service provider (ISP’s) internet connectivity to buy goods from C with the
stolen card details, this crime can amount to stealing, cheating, impersonation,
credit card fraud, money laundering, etc, which may be prosecuted under any of
the laws listed above. It is observed however that such adventure is very risky
considering other legal issues that may crop up.
6. It is observed that Nigeria as a
country occupies a prime place in cyber crime rate due to the evil menace of
419 and advanced fee fraud. There is no doubt that cyber crime is an image night
mare for Nigeria. Though the internet creates unlimited opportunities for
commercial, social and educational activities, but as we can see, the internet
also introduces its own peculiar risks.
7.
It is observed that, EFCC on its own has no mandate specifically for cyber
crimes though it is the only agency that now prosecutes most of the cyber
crimes in Nigeria.
8.
It is observe that, today the computer has replaced gun and even pen as the
weapon of choice for many criminals contrary to what movies suggest,
perpetrators of e-crime are though prevalent in the developing nations of the
world, Nigeria inclusive, cut across every race and gender. E-criminals include
students, amateurs, terrorists and company insiders – clerks, cashiers,
programmers, computer operators, and managers-who may have no extraordinary
technical ingenuity. Some are trusted employees with no criminal records who
are tempted by an opportunity, such as the discovery of a loophole in system
security, tempted by greed, financial worries, or personal problems. While
others are ex-employees seeking revenge on their former bosses, corporate or
international spies seeking classified information (for instance the recent
telephone hacking in UK which rocked the entire United Kingdom information
system), or high-tech pranksters looking for a challenge. Organized crime
syndicates are even turning to computer technology to practice their trades.
Sometime, it has been observed that even entire companies are found guilty of
cyber crime. For instance particular companies in Nigeria through her various
nefarious programme and services like Quiz shows on a National TV Station,
Promised thousands of naira to winners of the displayed questions. Deductions
of N100 were made per attempt from several thousands of callers whereas only
one call would be allowed to sail through. Another instance can be seen in the
case of Equity Funding Inc., while used computers to generate thousands of
false insurance policies that were later sold for over 27 million US dollars.
9. It is observed that cyber crime has
the potential to impact technological growth which is a key requirement for
productivity improvement and ultimately socio-economic growth because international
financial institutions view paper-based Nigerian financial instruments with
skepticism. Nigerian banks drafts and cheques are no longer viable
international financial instruments.
10. It is equally our observation that
unemployment, lack of standard and National Central Control, Proliferation of Cybercafés,
porous nature of internet and get-rich quick, syndrome contribute greatly to
the rise in cyber crimes in Nigeria.
11. Lastly, it is observed that the
Government is not in a hurry to arrest the rising wave of cyber crime in
Nigeria as evidence by lack-lustre attitude of various levels of government in
combating the menace.
Recommendations
From the startling observations made
above, it is hoped that the following recommendations may be necessary to
combat the wave of cyber crime in Nigeria. Hence, the writer offers the
recommendations below which if adhered to religiously will go a long way to
ameliorate cyber crimes in Nigeria.
1. The increase in ICT use in Nigeria
should be matched with corresponding increase in cyber security so as to curtail
the side effect and abuses that may arise from the use of internet facilities.
There is no doubt that cyber crimes are one of those abuses. Nigeria government
must match, worlds with action and rise up to the challenges necessitated by
increase in cyber crime.
2. Cyber crime is a spill over of the
increase in vices and crime rates in the society. Hence, the Government needs
to invest more in security of life and property so as to ensure the confidence
of the public on the ability of Government to cater for them and protect their
properties.
3. There is need for global action. Much
of the international work has so far been centred in Western European and OECD
countries; the potential extent of computer crime is as broad as the extent of
the international telecommunication systems. All regions of the world must
become involved in order to prevent this new form of criminality. Ensuring the
integrity of computer systems is a challenge facing both developed and
developing countries. It is predicted that within the next decade, it will be
necessary for developing nations to experience significant technological growth
in order to become economically self-sufficient and more competitive in world
markets. As dependence on computer technology grows in all nations, it will be crucial
to ensure that the rate of technological dependence does not outstrip the rate
at which the corresponding social, legal and political frameworks are developing.
It is important to plan for security and crime prevention at the same time that
computer technology is being implemented.
4. Cyber crime is a cross-border crime. There
is no single country that can successfully combat cyber crimes in isolation.
Therefore, in order to combat the crime concerted political will in all
countries and territories will be needed.
5. National and international agencies
must develop more sophisticated measures to find, freeze and forfeit proceeds
of crime.
6. Capacity and resources at both national
and international levels are always very limited vis-Ã -vis. The task ahead and
resources deployed by the criminals.
7. Nigeria as a country with peculiarity
of rise in cyber crimes need to review her laws to meet the challenges of cyber
crimes in the country.
8. Due to image nightmare which the rise
in cyber crimes have caused this country, there is an urgent need for the
government through the ministry of information and ministry of foreign affairs
to launch public relation campaign and public orientation to counter the
erroneous belief often held in the West that Nigerians are fraud went people.
9. Government must provide employment
opportunities to youth and as well strengthen the security apparatus to ensure
that the high rate of cyber crime is reduced if not eradicated.
10.
The cyber crime Bill should be passed to establish a specific agency with wide
power to handle cyber crimes cases in Nigeria. That is one of the major ways to
tackle this trend that is rearing its ugly head in the country.
11.
At the main time, the Nigerian Police can set up a cyber crime unit to tackle
the menace pending when a separate agency will be established for that purpose.
12.
Our law enforcements and persecutors lack the tools and skills to conduct
digital investigations and data analysis. There is need to train more law
enforcement agents in forensics to equip them with necessary technical know-how.
13. The courts on their own need to wake up,
to the innovations brought by ICT. Most of the judges continue to apply traditional
standards on burden of proof on internet related cases, leading to seemingly
unjust results and impossible orders.
14. The attitude of defence lawyers also need
to change. Some defence lawyers in our criminal justice system who for fear of
ultimate or likely conviction of their clients, employ various strategies in
stalling criminal prosecution in courts. They often time, waste the time of the
courts by filing frivolous applications for injunctions.
15. There is need for all combatants to share
a common vision of what they want to achieve in combating cyber crimes.
16. Lastly, there is need to establish an internet
crime complaint centre to serve as a vehicle to receive, develop and refer
criminal complaints on cyber crimes to the appropriate authorities. There is
also the need for EFCC to work in collaboration with international agencies
such as Microsoft, FBI and CIA to combat cyber crime in Nigeria.
Sincere the rate of and varieties of
e-crime is daily on the increase, a proactive rather than reactive approach has
to be deployed in order to tackle this problem. For instance, the members of
the society must educate themselves, the members of their families and
employees on basic online safety rules. They are losts of resources on internet
that give practical advice which can be applied to all electronic encounters
like text messaging, use of mobile phones, emailing etc.
There is also need for individuals
to set up basic virus protection and possibly firewall on their personal
computers to control what sort of materials come into their systems. It is
equally advised that people should avoid downloading share ware and freeware or
opening email attachments from anyone they do not trust. Scanning attachments
with an anti-virus tool before opening attachments is equally advisable.
People should not give out their ATM or credit card
PIN.
The
above is meant to guide the general public against domestic attack occasioned
by cyber crimes.
Conclusion
We have discussed the different
strategies adopted by cyber criminals in the pursuit of their evil and heinous acts.
A critical analysis of Nigerian laws to see whether they can accommodate the
challenges brought about by ICT reveals that more need to be done in that
respect. We can see from our discussion that the impact of cyber crimes on
Nigerian economy is devastating.
Computer information, which is the
main object of computer crime, is characterized by an extreme mobility which
exceeds by far the mobility of persons, goods or other services. Without doubt,
cyber-crimes are becoming more sophisticated globally and this makes them
difficult for eradication. Their criminalization would no doubt help to reduce
the menace. Due to the inherent nature of cyber crimes, as with all other
financial crimes, it is almost impossible to exterminate it.
There is no legal framework today in
Nigeria to create the needed platform the fight cyber-crimes which have so far
posed a real threat to our achievements in the financial industry reform. There
is need for more concerted effort to combat cyber crimes in Nigeria and delist
our names from the blacklist of fraudulent and 419 ridden state. The time is
now.
1
Ehimen O.R & Bola, A. (2009) “Cyber Crime in Nigeria: Business Intelligence
Journal” – January, 2010 Vol. 3 No. 1 at p. 94.
2
Adebiyi A. (2009) “Internet crime – The Nigerian perspective: www.tomalegal retrieve.com visited August 12, 2011
3 Later Act, Cap T 4 LFN 2004.
4 Cap N33 LFN 2004
5
For instance the EFCC Act, Cap. EI LFN 2004, Copyright Act 1988 (as
amended), Criminal Code Act, Cap C77 LFN, 2004 to mention but a few.