Education sector most vulnerable to cyber attack – JAMB Registrar

The Registrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Ishaq Oloyede, has called on government to act fast in taming the menace of cyber attacks in the nation’s education sector.

Oloyede stated this at the Multi-Stakeholders Sensitisation Workshop on the Implementation of Nigeria’s National Cybersecurity Strategy 2021, organised for education sector by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) on Wednesday, in Abuja.

The JAMB boss said that the academic and education sector in Nigeria were most vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Oloyede said that there were a lot of sensitive materials in the education sector that fraudsters were interested in, saying it was likely to be dangerous if care was not taken.

According to him, that is why the education sector must rise now and collaborate with the security agencies because the threat is real.

“The education sector is based on critical data and this critical data we cannot afford to expose them to malicious or opportunistic attackers,” he said.

The registrar stated that JAMB as an organisation had put in place several measures to protect its data against cyber attacks, adding that the examination body was conscious of the danger posed by cyber criminals.

He expressed worry that many educational institutions had not taken steps to curtail cyber attacks on their data probably because of lack of awareness.

He commended ONSA for the initiative to come up with policy strategy towards addressing the menace of cybersecurity.
Oloyede, however, called on all security agencies to synergise in the fight against cyber crime.

“That is why we think it is time for all of us to realise the danger of not adequately protecting our cyber space,” he said.

The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, said that the commission was fully aware of the danger posed by the activities of cyber criminals.

Rasheed, who was represented by the Deputy Executive Secretary Administration, Mr Christopher Mayaki, said that cyber crime had continued to pose serious threats to educational data as well as other materials.

He said that the advent of cyber threats and attacks are issues that had continued to occupy the minds of the academia in the higher education space.

According to him, the sector is the potential victim of the cyber attack and it is in light of this that we congratulate ONSA for the initiative to convey this workshop.

A Cybersecurity Matter Experts, Dr Uche Mbanaso, while speaking on “the Role of Academia, Industry and Government in Strengthening National Cyberspace”, said that the root cause of cyber crimes was vulnerability.

Mbanaso said that if a nation was able to reduce its vulnerability to cyber attacks, achieving cybersecurity would be possible.

He said that the academia contributed over 80 per cent to global development , adding that it created knowledge, innovation and skill sets through learning, research and development.

Our correspondent reports that the workshop will be held across seven sectors of the economy from September to December.

The seven sectors, according to ONSA, include Telecommunications, Defence and Security, Education, Finance and capital market, energy, professional organisations, the private sector and Judiciary.