Nigerian banks have lost a total of N199 billion to e-fraud between 2,000 and 2014, mostly due to inappropriate and reckless management of customers’ data.
Security assessment of Nigerian banks’ websites in the last two weeks carried out by Easy Solutions Ltd, a global e-fraud protection firm, indicated that electronic fraudsters had invaded Nigerian banking environment, deploying over 185 fake mobile applications on the websites of 15 out of 17 deposit money banks with which they are extracting customers’ personal and financial information with intent to steal billions of naira from bank accounts.
The latest study showed that Nigerian banks in the past four weeks faced defacement attacks on their websites. Other attacks include email spamming targeting both banks’ websites and customers’ emails with intent to slow the websites and steal customer financial data.
Director, Banking and Payments System, CBN, Mr Dipo Fatokun, noted that the new development was a threat to the stability of the banking industry and said that to battle the upsurge of e-fraud, CBN would work with relevant stakeholders to establish an industry security operations centre and a risk information centre in order to reduce e-payments frauds and enhance trust in the payments system.
