Internet security: Need for a Unified Institutional Framework in Nigeria

This article carefully considers the institutional framework for fighting Cybercrimes in Nigeria. 

ABSTRACT

Internet crimes are arguably the most trending crimes in the world today. This owes greatly to the global paradigm shift from old-school style o transactions to digital/paperless transactions traceable to the fast-growing and apparently unstoppable technological advancement all over the world. Contrary to the innocuous brain behind its innovation in the internet has become the largest forum or the perpetration of various criminal activities thereby demanding urgent legal and institutional security attention. It is apposite to underscore that unlike the developed countries in most developing countries o the world today still battle with the technical know-how to address the growth and escalation of these trending crimes. Nigeria which happens to be amongst the countries reportedly topping the list of cybercrime-infested countries had only formally criminalized these acts in 2015 vide the Cybercrime Act. Despite the criticisms of the Act, its enactment has been widely celebrated by various stakeholders including academic writers and law enforcement agencies as a milestone achievement in the war against internet criminals in Nigeria. This research work however weighs the sufficiency of the Act to curb cybercrimes in Nigeria vis-à-vis the

present cyber-security institutional framework and finally makes a case or a robust institutional framework or fighting cybercrimes in Nigeria as the winter is here already and the impending world war appears to be a cyber-war

Keywords: Crime, internet, cybercrime, cyber-security, institutional framework