Spio-Gabrah urges FG to update e-legislation

Chief Executive Officer, Commonwealth Telecom Organisation (CTO), Dr. Ekwow Spio-Gabrah, has urged the Federal Government to update the country’s e-legislation toward persecuting cyber criminals.

He made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja during the just concluded Third Ordinary Session of the African Union’s Communication and Information Technologies Ministerial Conference.

“Sometimes, a country does not have laws that allow it to persecute cyber criminals. Even when they are arrested, there may be nothing in the law that specifically makes cyber crime a crime," he said.

He said the situation prevailed ``because these are crimes of technology, which have been developing in the last few years’’ while many of the existing laws were made in the 1960’s when there were no computers and internet services.

"So, countries need to update their e-legislation so that appropriate sanctions will follow when people are caught in cyber crime," he said.

Also, he explained that the issue of cyber crime became common because of easy access to technology as well as the anonymity of the current information communication and technology world.

"Anybody can pick up a mobile phone and laptop computer to do a lot of things because ICT is now penetrating in all aspects of human endeavour. The financial sector, the banking system, national security and civil service operations, corporate world all are dependent on ICT," he noted.

Spio-Gabrah urged regulators, who licensed internet service providers, to endeavour to monitor their operations and subscribers regularly to curb cyber crime.

He urged regulatory agencies to use inscriptions and decoding technologies in monitoring cyber criminals.

He noted that cyber crime was internet based and urged managers of cybercafés not to encourage cyber criminals to utilise their facilities in promoting cyber crime.

"The highest numbers of victims in terms of value of money lost tend to be in the U.S. and certain countries in Europe, where people are looking for easy money, therefore, they fall victims to cyber criminals," he noted.

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