Starting
from July 1 2014, cashless policy will be implemented across all states of the
federation in Nigeria by the central bank of Nigeria.
This is
a good development but calls for caution; this means that E banking solutions
will be on the increase, for banking convenience and higher transactions limits
and also for safety purposes.
But
safety is the issue, it affords customers safety from the attacks of hoodlums,
armed robbers etc. it affords the opportunity of banking from the comfort of your
homes. It makes buying convenient and whole lots of opportunities. It will
increase investment in purchase of pos and create employment for the teaming
populations
But
beyond these there are the activities of hackers, password sniffers, web crammers’
data kidnappers, software pirates, cyber squatters and unlawful interceptors.
This is where the issues are of paramount concern. There are the yahoo boys who
can break into secured networks and do bank transfer. They are not deterred by
barriers. The attack on Sony customers and more recently e Bay customers are
still fresh in our minds.
In his
book "The Lexus and the Olive Tree", Thomas L Friedman, often makes
reference to the electronic herd. He went on to say that the electronic herd is
a group of several thousand often young people who control great sums of
electronic money; they are individuals who work for large banks, mutual funds,
investment funds and the like. They have the power with the click of the mouse
to move literally trillions of dollars from one country to the other in a split
second. That makes the electronic herd more powerful than the politician.(
Kiyosaki)
So also
the evil men with wrong knowledge can also do more than that, remember the case
of Osamo, the young Nigerian masters degree holder in computer engineering who
was involved in 2005 on such fraud related issues in Texas that drove the
American Government to sentence him to life imprisonment without option of fine
(Source How to Rob a Bank, 2005/2006 CNN Documentary)
With
the so called electronic herd, how do we safeguard the customers from these
evil men and that is why in these period of cashless policy, banks should
endeavor to safeguard their systems by building an adequate firewall and also
employing ethical hackers to safeguard the bank customers by fashioning out a
formidable software to protect the customers, this is because the world of money is
filled with charlatans and con men (Kiyosaki)
The banks should also collaborate with foreign bodies on the outright ban of IP
mask, a software that hides IP addresses.
As we
go cashless on July 1 2014, customers should be cautious and be weary of
unauthorized request from introducers who are interested in harvesting
passwords.
Let us
follow the advice of Alan Woodward, a security expert on how to protect
passwords, and according to Leo Kelion (BBC News), they are as follows:
- Don't choose one obviously associated with you: Hackers can find out a lot about you from social media so if they are targeting you specifically and you choose, say, your pet's name you're in trouble.
- Choose words that don't appear in a dictionary: Hackers can precalculate the encrypted forms of whole dictionaries and easily reverse engineer your password.
- Use a mixture of unusual characters: You can use a word or phrase that you can easily remember but where characters are substituted, e.g., Myd0gha2B1g3ars!
- Have different passwords for different sites and systems: If hackers compromise one system you do not want them having the key to unlock all your other accounts.
- Keep them safely: With multiple passwords it is tempting to write them down and carry them around with you. Better to use some form of secure password vault on your phone.
As we embark on the full cashless policy throughout the federation, having
implemented in Lagos, Abuja Etc let us keep the necessary precautions and
enjoy a cashless scheme.
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