{"id":41392,"date":"2021-03-16T08:18:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-16T08:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=41392"},"modified":"2021-03-16T08:18:17","modified_gmt":"2021-03-16T08:18:17","slug":"nigerian-it-agency-fines-electronic-firm-n5m-for-mis-handling-citizens-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=41392","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian IT agency fines electronic firm N5m for mis-handling citizens\u2019 data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has sanctioned Electronic Settlement Limited (ESL) with a fine of N5 Million for a data breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mrs Hadiza Umar, the agency\u2019s Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, said this on Monday, March 15, in a statement she signed and issued in Abuja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electronic Settlement Limited (ESL), is a financial technology company, which provides solutions to financial, payment problems in Nigeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umar said NITDA<\/a> conducted an investigation on the company\u2019s applications and website, in addition to visiting its office in Lagos for a review of its technical documents submitted to the agency, interrogated the staff, and discovered the breach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said the company\u2019s documents violated the Nigerian Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), which sought to ensure data protection for citizens, as established by the agency and in line with its IT regulatory mandate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umar said the investigation was conducted to assess the risks resulting from the breach, with a view to identifying the causes, remedial actions taken and other necessary issues, to avoid recurrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umar added that the company had been briefed on the agency\u2019s prescriptions for better information security and protection of personal data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn compliance with the NDPR and the need to prevent a repeat of this unfortunate breach, NITDA has directed that ESL shall be under a six-month information technology oversight by NITDA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt shall involve oversight of the implementation of prescribed security controls and processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be clear data security and governance document, drawn up between ESL and all its IT service vendors, identifying roles, responsibilities, and processes involved in securing and protecting personal data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe company will conduct regular NDPR training for all staff, publish and implement appropriate policies as required by the regulation. The company will pay the sum of Five million Naira only, as fine in line with the requirements of the NDPR,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other sanctions on the company, included submission of 2020\/2021 regulatory audit, as required by Article 4.1.6 of the NDPR, which would be conducted by a Data Protection Compliance Organisation licensed by NITDA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Umar also said that the company would conduct Data Protection Impact Assessment on some data-intensive applications and products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She, however, commended the management of ESL for the actions taken to mitigate the breach, hence taking responsibility, complying with the investigation process, and generally improving its compliance with the NDPR.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has sanctioned Electronic Settlement Limited (ESL) with a fine of N5 Million for a data breach. Mrs Hadiza Umar, the agency\u2019s Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, said this on Monday, March 15, in a statement she signed and issued in Abuja. Electronic Settlement Limited (ESL), is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[16,37],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNigerian IT agency fines electronic firm N5m for mis-handling citizens\u2019 data » WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=41392\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=41392#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tech\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=16\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Nigerian IT agency fines electronic firm N5m for mis-handling citizens\u2019 data\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Nigerian IT agency fines electronic firm N5m for mis-handling citizens\u2019 data » WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=41392","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=41392#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tech","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=16"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Nigerian IT agency fines electronic firm N5m for mis-handling citizens\u2019 data"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=16\" rel=\"category\">Tech<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=37\" rel=\"category\">Telecomunications<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has sanctioned Electronic Settlement Limited (ESL) with a fine of N5 Million for a data breach. Mrs Hadiza Umar, the agency\u2019s Head, Corporate Affairs and External Relations, said this on Monday, March 15, in a statement she signed and issued in Abuja. Electronic Settlement Limited (ESL), is a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41392"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}