According to an article about Cyber Security Expert Predicts Increase in Cyber Attacks in 2022 on thisday newspaper “The President, Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN), Mr. Remi Afon has predicted a sharp increase in cyber attacks in 2022 in Nigeria and the rest of the world.
He has therefore warned both the public and private sector organizations to guard against all forms of vulnerability in their systems and networks”.
This prediction is not without merits as reported by the punch newspaper which reported that Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya recorded over two million phishing (cyber) attacks in the first half of 2021, this was stated by the National Security Adviser, Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (retd.) in a workshop for the implementation of the “National Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy 2021”
With The rise of microfinance banks like Kuda, there has been a dramatic increase in the inflow of investment to facilitate their original role of microfinance banks services such as deposits, loans, money transfers and insurance to the poor and low income household and their micro enterprises at affordable cost. This sudden spotlight comes with a target on the backs of these MFI’s from hackers, fraudsters who would want to exploit the banking system for their own gains.
To ensure the Micro Finance Institutions (MFI’s) provide competitive, inclusive and secured financial services to the masses, certain areas are needed to be addressed. They are stated as follows
Infrastructural inadequacies
The most fundamental difficulties microfinance banks face is the near absence of basic infrastructure (buildings, roads, power supplies). Lack of these basic infrastructure affects the daily operational cost with their numerous small clients microfinance banks have as their transaction costs are usually higher than those of bigger banks.
Solution
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) mitigates a greater percentage of the operational expenditure (OPEX) and capital expenditure(CAPEX) of MFI’s, by offering essential compute, storage, and networking resources on demand.
These IT resources are an essential part of the daily operations of MFI’s in providing inclusive financial services to the masses which require a considerable investment usually undertaken by larger conventional banks.
One of the major causes of cyber attack success is use of old and outdated IT infrastructures. IaaS mitigates cyber attacks and intrusion by providing up-to-date IT resources which have patched previous vulnerabilities.
Cyber Security
The biggest threat to the banking system today is not from robbers but from the internet. As the President of the CIBN Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) Dr. Bayo Olugbemi, decried rising cyber-attacks on banks and other financial institutions, which it fears could undermine the industry’s gains speaking at the 21st edition of the National Seminar on Banking and Allied Matters for Judges, organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) stated in proshare. For MFI’s it requires a considerable amount of investment which only most conventional banks can undertake.
Solutions
Large upfront investments in security and cybersecurity personnel are things of the past. As Cloud providers we are obligated to undertake the burden of securing the data of clients, as this is stated in the ISO 27001. ISO 27001 is the international standard that describes the requirements for an ISMS (information security management system).
Conclusion:
Cloud Services can reduce the Cost of your IT Infrastructure and provide state of the art cybersecurity for MFI’s. The cost of servers, maintenance, innovations, and upgrades are spread through a multitenant hosted infrastructure, allowing the cloudflex to offer enterprise-class services to every client.