July 26, 2016/CBN

Chairman’s Address for the NeFF 2015 Annual Report-Dipo Fatokun, Director, Banking & Payments System Department CBN and Chairman, NeFF

The year 2015 was a sign-post for various cyber-crime activities that showed the evolution of the crime from one often thought to be perpetrated by crude individuals to a higher degree of professionalism and organization. However, to appreciate what we are yet to do, it is important that we understand what we have begun in the course of the year.

We have seen through, the sharp increase in phishing attacks as well as the increased recognition of personal data as high value data. As a Forum, in the course of the year, we have tackled the menace of insider abuse, which has become a conundrum in our fight against efraud. Rising from one of our meetings, the need for a coordinated industry fraud desk was mooted. These desks are to act as an industry proactive measure that will reduce the incidence of fraud and limit losses in the face of fraud occurrence.

This has since been implemented via a Central Bank of Nigeria circular to banks, Mobile Money Operators, Switches and all other payment service providers, directing them to maintain dedicated fraud desks in their respective organizations. The  impact on electronic Fraud has been massive.

The Forum has also, in the course of the year, embarked upon strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, in the fight against e-fraud. Courtesy visits to the Inspector-General of Police and the Chief Justice of the Nigeria, yielded the first ever Dedicated e-Payment and Card Crime Unit of the Nigerian Police on the one hand and assurances of the Chief Justice of the Nigeria that the Judiciary will stand with the Banker’s Committee in providing an effective solution to electronic fraud and other ancillary issues, on the other.

Members of the Nigeria electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) were also largely represented on a delegation of experts that attended the World Cyber-Security Financial Summit 2015, for the Nigerian Banking Industry, which held in Dallas, USA. This summit afforded our members the opportunity of: 1. Bringing World Class Training to the key bankers of Nigeria 2. Exposing emerging information security threats and how to be prepared. 3. Exposing how banks were  being compromised and how to effectively wage the war against e-banking and insider fraud. 4. Learning how to build an effective defence against Cyber-attack and e-fraud. 5. Building a better relationship with the US law enforcement entities (Particularly the FBI) The Forum also had its maiden retreat from the 21 to 22 of November, 2015 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. Outcomes from the retreat, raised a number of challenges which have been earmarked for confrontation in 2016,  and these include;

• Ineffective collaboration with the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC). •Duplication of efforts within the industry on issues bordering on payment security. •Poor industry coordinated awareness campaigns, resulting in people being the weakest link in our payments system. •Antics of fraudsters through old fraud schemes ,with only variations in their modus- operandi. Some of the fraud trends are Internal Fraud Compromise; Third Party Payment Application Compromise; Identity Theft/Account Compromise; Phishing Sites; Skimming; Rogue Mobile Application; Physical Theft; Rogue Merchant and Other Points of Compromise. •Proliferation of Phishing attacks on unsuspecting customers •The latest fraud trend of DDoS attack also known as Ransomeware.

It is therefore a deliberate attempt to reflect in our 2015 NeFF Annual Report, a compendium of our activities in the course of the year, that we have aptly captured our 2015 theme; “NeFF: Improving and Securing the Cyber-Environment”.

Looking forward and moving ahead, as a Forum, we have a mandate to ensure that the confidence in our Payments System is not compromised. In the face of rapidly changing threats, we have needed to act, and so we have. In the light of what lies ahead, we no doubt would be busy in 2016, because even though we have come thus far, there is still a lot that remains to be done.

As usual, we depend on the support and continued patronage of our stakeholders in ensuring a safer and more secure Payments System. We have remained a platform for restoring public confidence in our payment channels and we will continue to impress on our mandates, we will not let the steam down, rather, we will up the ante, to deliver a credible, reliable and efficient payments system for Nigerian banks and their various stakeholders.

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