The Uyo Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, on Monday, November 16, 2020, hosted students and administrative staff of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji.

The students who are of Senior Course (SC) 43 were on a study tour, which is a major aspect of the geo-strategic curriculum of their one-year mid-career training, aimed at affording them the opportunity of conducting on-the-spot research and proffering solutions to identified problems.

Speaking on the theme: "Pandemic and National Security: COVID-19 in Perspective," Head, Uyo Zonal of the EFCC DCDS Edeh Akpa Uchenna, noted that the Covid 19 pandemic negatively affected national security as the work from home directive/lockdown introduced more people to the cyber space, leading to a surge in cyber crime.

Speaking further on cyber space crime and cyber security, Head, Cyber crime Unit in the zone, Emeka Ukpai described cyber security threat as an introduction of a malicious malware that seeks to damage or steal data or disrupt digital life generally. He identified common cyber security threats to include, ransom ware, phishing, spoofing and hacking among others.

According to him, ransom ware is a malware that attempts to encrypt data and extort a ransom to release unlocked code which is capable of crashing a system.

"Spoofing,” he said, can be referred to as impersonation via telephone. A common example is when a caller claims to be calling from a bank and requesting bank account details from his target victim when the caller is just a fraudster and not a bank employee.

He outlined types of cyber crime to include email and internet fraud, identity fraud, cyber extortion, love scam, amongst others, and educated the participants on ways and means of fighting off cyberspace attacks.

"Some ways of preventing cyber attacks include: training of staff and employees on cyber security principles; installing and regularly updating anti-virus and anti-spyware software on computers; controlling physical access to the computers and network components; making available backup copies of important business data and information," Ukpai said.

In his remarks, the team leader, Brigadier general B. Adonkie expressed gratitude to Edeh for the warm reception and the knowledge that was imparted in the students and administrative staff of the college.

Media & Publicity
November 19, 2020