Chief Know-how Officer, Apex Net Community, David Efemena Ominiabohs has urged corporations to undertake bug bounty programmes and prioritise cybersecurity from the product design stage to guard in opposition to rising cyberattacks.
Ominiabohs, who has over a decade of expertise driving fintech innovation, made this recognized just lately in Lagos, through the Apex Tech Summit themed “The African Digital Financial system: Constructing the Infrastructure for the Subsequent Billion Customers.”
Ominiabohs known as for higher adoption of bug bounty programmes, which invite moral hackers to check methods and report vulnerabilities.
“There’s one thing known as bug bounty programmes the place hackers domestically can come to your platform, attempt to infiltrate your system. In the event that they discover out one thing, they’ll let you know instantly. That’s one thing that we don’t practise in Nigeria,” he mentioned
He defined that such proactive measures assist corporations repair flaws earlier than they’re exploited by malicious actors.
Talking on cybercrime mitigation, Ominiabohs mentioned many corporations fail to contemplate safety throughout product design, till after product launch, leaving them susceptible to assaults.
“They study late as a result of they don’t put that into consideration whereas constructing. So, by the point they realise… then they now begin taking measures about it,” he mentioned.
He warned that safety breaches might severely hurt an organization’s public picture.
“If your organization was hacked based mostly on cybercrime in any way, it has a foul picture for each entity. And also you don’t need that to occur,” he famous.
The fintech skilled emphasised that robust cyber defence begins inside an organisation. He suggested that corporations should instil inner vigilance, citing phishing assault simulations his group runs to maintain employees alert.
“That small hyperlink that you simply click on could be the explanation for our downfall. So, you at all times must take safety critically,” he mentioned.
Ominiabohs pressured the necessity for native knowledge centres reasonably than storing delicate data overseas to cut back the dangers of knowledge leaks and construct public confidence in how knowledge is dealt with
“If we’ve got a number of knowledge centres in Nigeria to retailer Nigerian-based knowledge… that would scale back the danger of attainable knowledge leaks and belief points,” he mentioned.
He famous that banks historically relied on on-premise networks to guard buyer knowledge earlier than the adoption of cloud methods, citing the necessity for related warning in fintech and different sectors.
The Apex Community CTO, David Efemena Ominiabohs, suggested new founders to first construct of their rapid markets earlier than making an attempt to develop.
“I at all times advise new builders to initially construct of their native space, for instance, their nation and state. Perceive the market first earlier than you scale,” he mentioned
He additionally addressed the challenges African startups face, significantly in assembly strict compliance necessities in comparison with their European counterparts. He defined that whereas compliance hurdles are excessive, African entrepreneurs have the benefit of with the ability to check concepts rapidly, iterate, and scale earlier than pursuing full regulatory certifications.
“You could have an thought, simply construct it, see what comes out of it, anticipate it, enhance on it, and earlier than you recognize it, you’ve damaged into the Nigerian market. It took us like 4 years, 3 years down the road to begin packing up all of those compliance certifications, licences, and all of that,” he mentioned.
He revealed that Apex is already working in seven African nations however continues to be targeted on deepening its presence and understanding regulatory frameworks inside the continent earlier than venturing exterior Africa.
“There may be nonetheless plenty of work in increasing in Africa and understanding the compliance totally. We’re going right into a extra regulated market, so we have to be prepared.”
Based on him, gaining compliance readiness in Africa will higher put together the corporate for the stricter laws it’ll encounter in worldwide markets.
