NITDA declares Nigeria free, includes sustained cyber security

The National I . t Development Agency (NITDA) says Nigeria is free on the "WannaCry" ransomware attack but justified sustained security from stakeholders to forestall future attacks.

Dr Isa Ibrahim, the Director-General of NITDA said this inside of a statement issued by Mrs Hadiza Umar, Head, Cooperate Affairs and External Relations on Sunday in Abuja.

Newsmen propose that on May 12, the WannaCry began affecting computers worldwide, with evidence pointing a good initial infection in Asia at 7:44am UTC.

The WannaCry ransomware attack is surely an ongoing worldwide cyber attack, which targets computers running the Microsoft cheap office 2010 professional plus os by encrypting data and demanding ransom payments during the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

It really is affected systems in excess of 200,000 individuals, through 150 countries throughout the world including Europe, America and Russia.

Ibrahim, however, stated that Nigeria was spared following sensitisation from relevant stakeholders.

"The treatments for NITDA prefer to give to the eye of Nigerians how the recent buy cheap microsoft office WannaCry or WannaCrypt ransomware attack have been contained.

"Nigeria was largely spared out from the attack considering the massive enlightenment campaign, awareness and proactive measures installed to swiftly put up with any reported incident.

"The efforts in consideration of stakeholders at the Information Technology industry are highly commendable and appreciated.

"The attack which had been looked upon as one of the biggest cyber security attacks in the past showed traces that Nigeria has been isolated, as no major incident is reported in the united kingdom.

"We, therefore, call on all citizens, especially critical stakeholders throughout the IT industry, to NITDA in such a onerous task by always following guidelines.

"They need to be proactive in the way information and systems are handled simply because could help in minimising risks of attacks in addition to possible decrease vital information," he was quoted saying.

The D-G mentioned that IT had become the integral element of Nigerians which required vigilance to ascertain maximum protection.

Ibrahim further called on users of outdated os's to upgrade to cheap office 2016 and try to get the next protection patch, MS17-010 released by Microsoft.

He added that Windows Defender Antivirus need to be enabled on systems to detect Ransomeware and other alike attacks.

He, however, told me that there's an answer to systems who had has been being affected by the attack. "For systems that happen to be attacked, tools were intended to unlock the files locked in that ransomware.

"The WannaDecrpyt or Wannakey are often used to unlock the file; they have been found for getting successfully decrypted systems have contracted the ransomware," he explained.