The 2016 CyberXchange Conference held from Tuesday, November 2 to Wednesday, November 3, 2016 at the Landmark Event Centre, in Lagos. With the theme cybersecurity, the conference discussed the technologies various sectors like finance, e-ccommerce, and telecommunications have adopted in ensuring cyber safety.
CyberXchange 2016 featured keynote sessions, workshops, exhibitions, B2B matchmaking, demos and a hackathon.
Facebook’s Chief Security Officer, Alex Stamos who gave the keynote address, stated that “It was inspiring to see the energy at CyberXchange focused on developing security talent and finding solutions to security problems that companies and governments face. I particularly enjoyed the hackathon that brought talented students together to design prototypes and build community with others who share a passion for cyber security”.
During his keynote speech, Alex Stamos described a new feature Facebook created to help keep people safe on the platform. The new feature is called the Safety Center, and it is an interactive tool to help people learn more about controlling their information and staying safe on Facebook. The feature provides a step by step process on how to control your experience on Facebook. It also provides tips for safe and secure sharing. The tool is available in over 50 languages, and works well on mobile devices.
“People come to Facebook to share important and personal moments in their lives. That’s why we build our services and tools to help people remain in control and protect their accounts. We always have to consider the situations in which our technology will be used so that we can offer people the best security and safety for what they need,” said Stamos.
The topics that were discussed at the conference include business continuity management and critical infrastructure protection, innovating digital security for financial Institutions, cybersecurity for oil and gas industry, secure Coding: proactive application development, threat exchange, building an airtight DOS mitigation, ethical hacking and offensive security techniques, advanced biometric systems, and malware and phishing prevention techniques.
There was also a Facebook-sponsored hackathon session. This was aimed at developing the capacity of budding information security professionals. The winning team went home with a cash prize of N700, 000.
The President of Information Security Society of Africa-Nigeria (ISAAN), Dr David Isiavwe reiterated the need for organizations to prepare regulations for when risks will arise. He said, “Organizations, boards and CEOs need to be proactive in dealing with cyber crime”.
Representatives from IBM, Interswitch, UBER, PAGA, Central Bank of Nigeria, Facebook, Co-Creation Hub, Imperva Incapsula, and Deloitte were among the numerous organisations present at the event.
