The federal government has commenced training information technology administrators from ministries, departments and agencies to protect government networks against unauthorised access.

The five-day training on technical and organisational drill on data protection measures is being organised by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission in Abuja.

The training is an intensive, hands-on capacity-building programme to equip technical personnel in government institutions with the practical skills needed to implement appropriate measures in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.

Vincent Olatunji, national commissioner of NDPC, said that, with digitisation part of human life, breaches at a frequency of once every 39 seconds were expected, hence the need to develop human capacity to mitigate them.

According to him, it is important that they are trained in technical and organisational measures to ensure they protect their networks and databases from unauthorised access.

The commissioner stated that if organisations fail to protect their networks, it could lead to financial losses and reputation damage.

Mr Olatunji also mentioned that plans were underway to extend the training to permanent secretaries and heads of agencies, adding that they were in discussions with the head of the civil service of the federation.

According to him, we want to take a top-down approach to training, so the heads can understand data protection measures and approve steps and budgets for data protection.

He added that the training was targeted at achieving their strategic roadmap, the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy’s strategic roadmap, and the Renewed Hope Agenda.

Tolu Pius-Fadipe, head of the training committee and research and development, said they were working towards human capital development and to foster a culture of responsible data management.

Babatunde Bamigboye, head of legal enforcement and regulations, said the annual cost of data breaches globally was about $23 trillion, adding that an average company would lose about $4 million.

Mr Bamigboye said that data protection parameters included principles, accountability, the rights of data subjects, auditing, data management, ethics, and education on data protection, among others.

(NAN)