NiRA signs MoU with EFCC to train personnel on cyber security - ITREALMS

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Registry for .ng internet domain names, the Nigerian Internet Registration Association (NIRA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to provide cyber security trainings for the personnel of the commission, reports ITREALMS.

As registry, NIRA is responsible for maintaining the database of names registered in the .ng country code Top Level Domain (TLD).

The signing, ITREALMS gathered, was conducted between the leadership of EFCC led by its Executive Chairman, Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, and NIRA President, Mr. Muhammed Rudman, at the EFCC head office at Jabi, Abuja.

Speaking at the ceremony, Bawa reiterated the resolve of the Commission to build the capacity of the personnel to effectively combat the emerging trends in cyber security.

According to Bawa, the MoU would further boost the understanding of his personnel on the modern trends in cyberspace and assist the Commission’s investigations.

“We are very proud to collaborate with you because we realize that part of our mandate is collaboration. We need relevant stakeholders whether in government or private sector to achieve our mandate,” Bawa said.

He expressed delight over the collaboration, stressing that EFCC had a well-equipped academy to sustain the training.

“I find this MoU very appealing. I accept your collaboration and we are ready to start as soon as possible. We have a well-equipped academy to carry out this training and I advise that the training is not only onsite but also online so that many people can join, and even other agencies can benefit from this using the same our platform, he said.

Earlier, NIRA President, Muhammed Rudman while providing some insight into the goals of the registry, said that the purpose of the MoU was to strengthen collaboration between his association and the commission.

According to him, there was a huge gap between NIRA and law enforcement agencies, which needed to be abridged.

“We have law enforcement agencies locking up registrars when there are cyber security issues in terms of websites, based on the crimes perpetrated by end users. So, to protect our registrars from having challenges with law enforcement, we identified EFCC as the right partner to provide capacity building to address these gaps in terms of cybersecurity awareness and general knowledge of Information and Communication Technology (ICT),” he said.

Rudman also noted that when the MoU is fully implemented, it would benefit not only the EFCC but other agencies as well.

“... We want to kick start this project as soon as possible to give high level capacity building on the internet and how it works, to address the needs of law enforcement agencies, using EFCC as an umbrella body to bridge the cybersecurity gaps,” Rudman declared.

Chuks Egbune/DoP