NSE canvasses measures to guard against business failures via hacking

The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has intensified effort to guard against failure of businesses through forceful and unauthorized access to the data bank of organizations leading to stagnation of processes and operations and eventual failure.
At the Nigerian Capital Market Information Security Forum which held at the NSE Lagos, stakeholders harped on the need for organizations to always crave for knowledge on how to deal with hacking and how to forestall future occurrences.
Hacking is forceful and unauthorized access to ones computer system with the objective of stealing data, or a technical effort to manipulate the normal behavior of ones computer.
When a system is hacked, all the data stored in the system would be compromised or stolen by an outsider who intends to make a fraudulent use of the information stolen. This has led to the closure of many organizations across the world while many others have lost fortunes to cyber criminals.
The forum themed “ What to do when you are hacked,” co-sponsored by Microsoft and Hewett Packard Enterprises enjoined organizations to always have the mindset that they have been hacked and continuously seek ways of advancing security of their data as well as reliable backup infrastructures for data retrieval once compromised.
Mr. Ade Bajomo, Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology of the NSE, leading the operations and technology transformation of the bourse, counselled company owners to always ensure that they do not set off to start fixing problem once hacking is detected, but first strive to understand the problem, its sources and then meet experts who have the knowledge of handling the situation.
Bajomo said that 60 per cent of small businesses that get hacked close down within six months, stressing that it is therefore imperative for business owners to understand what hacking entails, how to fall victim and how to handle the crisis whenever it occurs.
He said that many businesses become victim of hacking because the operators of such businesses lack knowledge of what to do when their databank has been compromised through internet hacking . He added that apart from lack of knowledge, lean resources, expensive process of correction and lack of experience sharing by industry operators further aid consistent hacking.
Bajomo counselled that to make attacks less expensive, business owners should constantly embark on staff training, introducing the right technology and processes as well as ensuring round the clock IT infrastructures system surveillance.
Explaining how difficult it is to detect when hacking has occurred, the NSE Executive Director said “a popular exchange was hacked for six months without tier’s knowledge; it was the FBI that alerted them that they have been hacked.”
On the best approach to handle a situation when data has been compromised, business owners were urged not to panic, to have better understanding of what happened, seek help and not to quickly expose the situation to the public.
Blessing Nnachi, Business Solutions Specialist, Microsoft Corporation, in her presentation said that there is a constant tussle between innovation and security as every business innovation exposes one to more risks.
She revealed that 160 million customers get compromised daily, as it takes 229 days between infiltration of data and detection, while businesses lose $3 million per breach, depending on the location of the business.
Blessing said that there has been more hacking attempts in Nigeria than the global average and that this puts the country on the center stage of cybercrime and increased effort to check hacking, taking into consideration that small businesses trying to break even stand greater risk of hacking.
Mr. Chuks Okpala, contributing, advised business owners to ensure that their data is evenly protected and stored in easy retrieval formats through formidable backups, since 99.9 per cent of hacking centers on data.
Favor Yemi Oyewole of the NSE pointed out that traffic light protocol (TLP) matrix where colours are used to indicate how information should be processed by the recipients is usually deployed to check hacking and misuse of mailed information.