By Peter OBIORA InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The British Standards Institute (BSI), Wednesday rated the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) highest in maintaining global information security standard.
A statement from the CBN said Vikas Mulkutkar, surveillance auditor of the BSI disclosed this during the closing ceremony of the ISO 27001 surveillance audit at the apex bank’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, June 10, 2014.
Mulkutkar said CBN maintained the highest level in information security standard (ISO 27001) compliance since being certified in July, 2013.
According to the statement, Mulkutkar commended the staff of the CBN for their work culture and commitment to the information security management system, ‘’the auditors checked all of the information security controls and found them to be in strict compliance and handled by very committed staff,’’ he said.
He affirmed that the 11 departments of the CBN audited showed high knowledge of information systems security controls and had complied with the ISO 27001 standard exhibiting minimal deviation, while urging the management of Nigeria’s central bank to consider upgrading from the ISO 27001: 2005 to the current version (ISO27001:2013) of the standard. ‘’You should also engage other system certifications like the business continuity management (BCM) standard and service management standard to ensure an all-round certification for the Bank.
Godwin Emefiele, new governor of Nigeria’s central bank who was represented by Kingsley Moghalu,
deputy governor (operations), congratulated the staff of the CBN for maintaining the highest global information security standard from BSI.
He said the feat was due to the high level of professionalism and commitment exhibited by the ISO champions and entire staff of the CBN.
He further affirmed that the first surveillance audit, which was conducted at the CBN between June 5 and 10, 2014, was to review its information security management system (ISMS) processes, procedures, documents and records.
According to him, sample departments were selected from the five (5) directorates of the CBN, where departmental processes and business areas were checked for compliance with the standard, including improvements to its ISMS since the certification of the CBN in July, 2013.
The governor, however, advised the staff of the apex bank to work harder in order to achieve zero non-conformity standards.
The Nigeria’s central bank’s management thereafter presented awards to the ISO champions in its various departments and the secretariat of information security management system for the successes achieved at the end of the surveillance audit.
The CBN in July, 2013 became the first regulatory body in Nigeria to obtain the ISO: 27001: 2005 Certificate from the BSI.
