Technology
FG Caution Nigerians Against Fraudulent Mobile Applications
Hackers are using malware attacks to blackmail users “into meeting up with certain demands else they risk having their private information revealed to the public.
The Federal Government through the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has alerted Nigerians about a money-lending app that hackers are using to defraud innocent people.
Investors King gathered that Nigeria alongside other Sub-Saharan African countries has been a target of increased cyber attacks in recent times. The latest report from Group-IB, a cybersecurity firm located in Singapore has revealed.
The warning which was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by the spokesperson of the NITDA, Hadiza Umar, noted that hackers are using malware attacks to blackmail users “into meeting up with certain demands else they risk having their private information revealed to the public”.
It further states that once the malware is installed, it harvests and uploads a wide range of private information from the victim’s device onto the server.
According to NITDA, some of the data which could be at risk include locations, text messages, contacts, call logs, files, photos, and audio recordings among others.
Nigerians are thereafter advised to take a number of preventive measures which include installing up-to-date anti-malware applications on PC and mobile devices, the need to read reviews before downloading any App, and installing only applications from trusted sources.
Meanwhile, NITDA has revealed that Nigeria currently has a competitive advantage to become the global talent factory in the tech sector with the capacity to earn over $40bn annually.
The Director General of NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi observed that there was currently a vacancy of about four million programmers globally of which Nigeria had the capacity to produce two million which could be plugged into the global value chain.
Quoting a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the DG noted that while an average tech developer or programmer earns between $30,000 to $150,000 per annum, if Nigeria could have two million developers working remotely, with each earning about $20,000, the country could as well generate over $40 billion annually, which was a significant amount capable of addressing the country’s forex challenge.