VELMA-ARC: Action to Reduce Cybercrimes

Velma-ARC; Action to Reduce Cybercrimes contributes valuable skills, creative strategies, and wider networks for collecting and disseminating information that can be used to strengthen not only cybersecurity but also digital education accountability.
Seeking to diversify the range of actors – and the evidence base– contributing to the principles of inclusivity and empowerment; enhancing not only cybersecurity efforts but also pluralism, civil liberties, and the functioning of government.   
Our restorative program addresses the root causes of cybercrime, reducing recidivism processes, reintegrate disengaged youths, strengthen prevention of forced recruitment and utilization initiatives all pervasive in the current climate. 
Our mission is to increase the quantity and quality of the opportunities for youth for full effective and constructive participation in society and decision making as a means to increase tolerance among the different groups, build respect for the rule of law and human rights, and reduce violence in their politically and ethnically tense environments.     

When the COVID-19 crisis struck, Africa was in the midst of a far-reaching digital transformation. 
With the growing sophistication of the Nigerian youths in cyber competencies, they have ramped up to take advantage of COVID-19 confusion. With the number of breaches increasing 273% in the first quarter, large-scale breaches have grown in intensity and frequency in 2020. Today the “cybercrime industry” has infected the world to USD$1.5trillion.              Identifying urbanization, high unemployment, quest for wealth, poor implementation of cybercrime laws, inadequately equipped law enforcement  agencies, and negative role models are several causes of proliferated cybercrimes in Nigeria.           
The UNDP quotes in 2019 Nigeria has over 98 m poor people, the highest in the world, youth underemployed or unemployed, the rate being 55.4% despite qualifications. This phenomenon encourages the development of street youths and urban urchins (“area boys”) that grow up in a culture that encourages criminal behavior.
Cybercrime has a low entry requirement but yields high financial returns, giving high incentives with low barriers.
Many unemployed graduates are involved in cybercrime, most often out of desperation in the bid to survive. The stark reality is that most of them perpetuate the act as a means of escaping the reality of poverty.

To supplement traditional sources of threat intelligence, Velma-ARC has established a platform where the government and the private sector can share threat intelligence quickly and confidentially. The creation of a safe cyber environment through the integrated information operation IO is ideal for contemporary counter-terrorism campaigns.                                              To reduce cybercrimes in Nigeria, there is the need for government, law enforcement, intelligence and security agencies to understand the technology and individuals engaged in the criminal acts as well as a need to create job opportunities for the unemployed youths in order to contribute for the greater good.                                                                                          Velma-ARC regards the tactical employment of technology as a sensible starting point in the disaggregation of cybercrime.                                        Spurring the repentant youth to cultivate practical tools and providing opportunities to learn prosocial strategies, Velma-ARC strategizes in leveraging the repentant youths' cybercriminal skills for curbing the incidents of crime. While aiding in the detection, investigation, arrest, prosecution of cybercrimes in Nigeria, participants are coming up with useful IT innovations and solutions that can help achieve this aim. By exposing new trends in cyber threats and plugging loopholes constantly exploited by cybercriminals, such techniques contribute positively to the efforts in cracking down on and controlling cybercrime.                                                  

Velma-ARC serves to enhance the inherent capacity of local and national-level institutions to provide efficient youth-centered support services. Serving the purpose of youth empowerment and entrepreneurship incentives to hitherto unemployed youths, we harness their ICT skills to be efficient stakeholders in fighting cybercrimes, and also make them employable in the international ICT market.     

Velma-ARC`s restorative justice program as support for those youths trapped in the vicious cycle of cybercrime serves as the way forward. Additionally, to mitigate youths' risks associated with cybercrime activities, Velma-ARC serves to effectively link our repentant youths to inclusive, sustainable, and market-driven employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. As a positive contribution in society, we enable the individual to seek a life, earn a living, live as a respectable citizen without being corrupted by crime as an escape from the prevailing conditions.                                                   

Addressing the high recidivism rate of formerly incarcerated cybercriminals, Velma-ARC not only offers coding classes and programming opportunities to individuals willing to be rehabilitated once released, but also teams up with tech companies and public agencies to offer apprenticeships to train and mentor graduates that ultimately serve as a blueprint for constructive employment prospects. The underlying philosophy is that successful reentry into society requires the ability to get a job and the processes needed to start once released. 

Stimulating digital employment and development of our youth, Velma-ARC takes responsibility to identify the sectors where digital jobs are found and the types of jobs being created, adapting strategies to address both labor supply- and demand-side constraints. 

Almost two-thirds of youth employment programs fail to have any job impact. That’s because traditional programs often focus only on the labor demand side, focusing on skills training, counseling, and other related services. While these activities are important, Velma-ARC serves to ease the demand-side components, preferring to look at the supply-side, ensuring that our better trained youth can move into good quality jobs. 1.

By scoping the employment and entrepreneurship sectors to ensure that the skills acquired by the beneficiaries are relevant to the job market, this will increase the likelihood that our beneficiaries access employment or income-generating opportunities once they complete the program.       

Establishing the Cybercrime Intervention Centre in Abuja, wherein the Rehabilitation Bootcamp and Hub activities will take place, we propose to secure a long lease of 10 years for this project. Our rehabilitated youth as facilitators share ownership of the Centre; it will be open to all youths interested in fighting cybercrimes, accepting 100 participants annually.

Velma-ARC weighs heavily on the value system integration of cross-sectoral partnerships. Such collaboration increases the value of contribution of our candidates and in turn, optimizes the efficiency to effectively curb the perpetration of cybercrime.

Fostering cross-cutting capabilities; the acquisition of the foundational, technical, financial, entrepreneurial creates livelihoods for our rehabilitants to support. Spurring the repentant youth to cultivate practical tools and providing opportunities to learn prosocial strategies, Velma-ARC furnishes coping techniques for addressing their inherent problems;                             

Q.1 Integral to our rehabilitation of repentant cybercriminals, a reliance on the external partnership of psychologists specializing in criminology serves to lay the foundations of our mission. At the Velma-ARC Bootcamp on 20th January 2020, participants were briefed on the rehabilitation process with a personality assessment test administered by the psychology team headed by Maju Foundation. Psychological Intervention, a key component of the rehabilitation process. The participants are first taken through psychological profiling (personality, symptomology and psychopathology) using the most recent Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory -2- Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF)  Components of behavior and cognitive-behavioral approaches to modify and maintain, such as psycho-educative modules, covert sensitization, shaping, behavioral chaining, problem-solving, cognitive restructuring and homework are adopted. The use of the scientist-practitioner model is preferred with the systematic measurement of treatment progress which, albeit, relies on self-reporting.                                                                      

Q2. Use of psychological interventions and rehabilitative treatments to be adopted include components of behavior and cognitive-behavioral approaches; Life skills, Essential skills, Behavioral skills, Non-cognitive skills, Youth development assets, Workplace/work readiness competencies, Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills, Transferable skills, Employability skills, Character skills/strengths.

Critical to turning around such candidates, a reliance on external IT partnerships assisting in harnessing their homegrown skills significantly weighs on how effectively we manage this program. At our Bootcamp, participants received the first of many IT skills acquisition components of the program from Cybertalk Naija, who educated participants on the various IT skills and requirements to learn.

IT experts assess the individual’s initial skills, and use improvement scaling instruments tailored to measure attainment levels of the specific IT goals; cybersecurity, python programming, social engineering and big data analysis. 

Sensitization by going public and giving talks, in the private and public sectors; educational institutions at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, about the offenders` experiences, their wrong-doings, the lessons learnt, and the warnings for the future citizens is essential to our rehab program.            By the close of Camp, participants had engaged in 4 different Community Service outreaches including the church and the market.                                                                                                                                                    Q3. Upon completion, an independent evaluation system is adopted to certify that a client has been properly rehabilitated and is willing and ready to be reintegrated into the society, including a willingness to take up a respectable job offering, or, where a client does not possess sufficient educational qualifications to be employable, willingness to return to school under constant supervision and mentoring. Establishing a feedback loop with educators and employers, such arrangements provide input and feedback on the relevance of the training and the quality of the graduates.                       

Q4. Trained and certified participants provide recent information to law enforcement agencies in order to aid in the detection, investigation, arrest, prosecution of cybercrimes in Nigeria. Our repentant youth become the trainers serving as multipliers and ingraining their experience.                      Setting up a centralized online cybercrime reporting mechanism in place at our Hub, Velma-ARC provides victims of cybercrime, a convenient and easy-to-use reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of suspected cybercriminals. 

Pursuant to our Press Conference on December 20, 2019, Velma-ARC threw open our website registration link www.velma-arc.org/register for repentant cybercrime offenders to voluntarily signify an intention to be rehabilitated. For the initial stage we received over 50 applications from all parts of Nigeria and a couple of international applicants with another 100 people showing interest for the second stage not even advertised yet. 

Our graduates from the 1st batch of 50 work with the pilot graduates of 10 to provide income generating services at the Hub, thus yielding financial income by the time the 2nd batch of 50 have graduated from camp. By the 3rd batch, we would save costs on IT training and facilitators, leveraging our experience to sustain operations. Our recurrent expenditure would be reduced significantly by this time, while our income would be on the increase. By the end of 10 years, the Centre will generate income to be self-sufficient because its upward income would be inversely proportional to its expenditure.                                                                                          

The initiative encourages community service by requiring participants to serve for the benefit of the community without monetary reward, as means of rehabilitation. This measure endorses non-custodial sentences, allowing offenders to exercise social functions, and bringing managerial efficiency into the operation of the criminal justice system.                                          

The best result anticipated would be a reconciliation of the offender in his/her community as the prime objective of any restorative justice system. This exercise plays a leading role in de-labelling the offender so that they can be grounded again in their communities. Within these perspectives, it is seen that the offenders recognize the sense of responsibilities and altruism to become a normal citizen.                                                                                                                                                                                        Addressing the needs of marginalized or vulnerable groups is a key objective of the project. Volunteering in projects which demand constructive use of IT savvy-ness; developing parent education materials on supervising children in internet time, developing IT applications for life-long learning inclusive of empowering women, the elderly and the disabled to plug into the info tech world, authoring blog sites and other online media information portals where they share their experiences and expose the dangers in cybercrimes, teaching codes they have acquired at the Velma-ARC ICT hub.        

Finally, the initiative saves cybercrime victims by reducing the number of cybercriminals in the field. For every rehabilitated cybercriminal, we would have rescued hundreds of potential cybercrime victims that criminals would have targeted. Our participants use their knowledge and experience to help investigate cases of cyber fraud and identify the perpetrators.                                                                                                                                            For the harmonization of laws, Velma-ARC supports improvement of investigation techniques, and facilitates broad cooperation. Our intervention is complementary to aid the activities of law enforcement agencies in curbing cybercrimes.                                                                                

To supplement traditional sources of threat intelligence, Velma-ARC has established a platform where the government and the private sector can share threat intelligence quickly and confidentially. As a single point of contact for all networks—and, increasingly, citizens—to report cyber incidents, Velma-ARC deems it critical to build a centralized repository across government entities that captures data related to all cyber incidents in the country. Through multilateral partnerships, Velma-ARC provides an environment for national and international visibility.                                                                                                                                                          As of 8 May 2020 Interpol National Central Bureau in Abuja Nigeria agreed to forward their cybercriminals to our services. The network of corroboration including Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, National Information Technology Development Agency, Ministry of Communications Technology, Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Correction Services (Prisons), Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Police, Nigerian Bar Association and the Judiciary stand committed to support the pioneering endeavors of Velma-ARC.    

Partnering with traditional authorities and government agencies to garner community engagement and support, this gives credibility to Velma-ARC. New and unknown to the community, the network therefore increases the rates of participation, engagement and retention. Through such networks, Velma-ARC can serve to influence the formulation of policies that would specifically address cybercrime.       

Our mission Velma-ARC is one solution; We eradicate cybercrimes in Nigeria, we rid the world of a huge portion of cybercrime incidents. If successful, we replicate it in other low profile countries especially in Africa in order to discourage vulnerable youths from engaging in cybercrimes.  

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/3...

 2. Velma-ARC Brochure.pdf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rbfDwQmF75dtPTBv2a8gUFf0wgLv7di4/view

 3. velma proposal final.pdf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DlfW_iZUZTiG0S4GRs7fRt5RdaEOPKg6/view?usp=sharing

Addressing the needs of marginalized or vulnerable groups is the key objective of Velma-ARC. Initiating projects which demand constructive use of IT savvy-ness; developing parent education materials on supervising children in internet time, developing IT applications for life-long learning inclusive of empowering women, the elderly and the disabled to plug into the info tech world, portals where our repentant youth share their experiences and expose the dangers in cybercrimes, teaching codes they have acquired, Velma-ARC serves to embed our digital program in a policy framework, leveraging established institutions and infrastructure, such as existing community education and training models.    

Pursuant to our Press Conference on December 20, 2019, Velma-ARC threw open our website registration link www.velma-arc.org/register for repentant cybercrime offenders to voluntarily signify an intention to be rehabilitated. For the initial stage we received over 50 applications from all parts of Nigeria and a couple of international applicants with another 100 people showing interest for the second stage not even advertised yet.  

The first cybercrime rehabilitation boot camp in Nigeria was held in the Glorious Legacy Hotel, Ilesa. Osun State from 20 January to 16 February 2020. Ten Participants arrived, as well as the psychologist team from Succor Health.

On Friday 24th January, 2020, participants took part in their first outreach campaign at the Ilesa Grammar School and had over 250 kids in attendance.
All the participants were able to simulate the program pattern of an ATM, marking a huge milestone in their IT journey.

1. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sZ4DQxPDZrG__aoe6E1qSyvEhPWQmr1qoNw9MyIjhco/edit

2. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RrUzMJGvwkzLYwBWsUT-70hQCMY_DW15/view?usp=sharing

To supplement traditional sources of threat intelligence, Velma-ARC has established a platform where the government and the private sector can share threat intelligence quickly and confidentially. The creation of a safe cyber environment through the integrated information operation is ideal for contemporary counter-terrorism campaigns.  

As a single point of contact for all networks—and, increasingly, citizens—to report cyber incidents, Velma-ARC deems it critical to build a centralized repository across government entities that captures data related to all cyber incidents in the country. Through multilateral partnerships, Velma-ARC provides an environment for national and international visibility.                                                                                                                                        In our efforts to support the Nigerian government in the disaggregation of cybercrime, Velma-ARC regards the tactical employment of technology as a sensible starting point. By turning to the hitherto cybercrime actors themselves in order to gain insight into their modus operandi, such techniques will contribute positively to the efforts in tackling cybercrime; new trends in cyber threats enable a plugging of loopholes constantly exploited by cybercriminals. 

Spurring the repentant youth to cultivate practical tools, and providing opportunities to learn prosocial strategies, Velma-ARC furnishes coping techniques for addressing their inherent problems.             

Skills development mustn't be overlooked. It represents one of the key drivers of innovation on the continent.

In marking our distinction, Velma-ARC strategizes in leveraging the repentant youths' cybercriminal skills for curbing such incidents of crime. By harnessing their ICT skills to be efficient stakeholders in fighting cybercrimes, we also make them employable in the ICT market, this being Velma-ARC`S holistic fight against cybercrimes in Nigeria.          

Establishing the Cybercrime Intervention Centre in Abuja, wherein the Rehabilitation Bootcamp and Hub activities take place, we propose to secure a long lease of 10 years for this project. Velma-ARC accepts 100 participants annually.
Our graduates from the 1st batch of 50 work with the pilot graduates of 10 to provide income generating services at the Hub, thus yielding financial income by the time the 2nd batch of 50 have graduated from camp. By the 3rd batch, we would save costs on IT training and facilitators, leveraging our experience to sustain operations. Our recurrent expenditure would be reduced significantly by this time, while our income would be on the increase. By the end of 10 years, the Centre will generate income to be self-sufficient because its upward income would be inversely proportional to its expenditure.                                              
It is planned that in 5 years, we would have trained and empowered 500 students who, in turn, will provide free training to prospective students via a pool to be administered by the co-operative society on a yearly basis, thus producing entrepreneurs who can emigrate with their skills to provide vocational services to neighboring cities. 
The co-operative society being proposed will ensure that the project is sustainable, aiding a smooth transition from our organization to the community, with minimal intervention. The leadership of the society will be by consensus/election. Velma-ARC Staff will also be represented in the society in order to continue to provide support and guidance, and to ensure that the initiative succeeds.

Fostering cross-cutting capabilities for our rehabilitants to support.                                                                                                       

Q1. Psychological Intervention, a key component of the rehabilitation process. Psychological profiling (personality, symptomology and psychopathology) using the most recent Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory -2- Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF)  Components of behavior and cognitive-behavioral approaches to modify and maintain, such as psycho-educative modules, covert sensitization, shaping, behavioral chaining, problem-solving, cognitive restructuring and homework are adopted. The use of the scientist-practitioner model is preferred with the systematic measurement of treatment progress which, albeit, relies on self-reporting.                                                                                                                        

Q2. Use of psychological interventions and rehabilitative treatments to be adopted include; Behavioral skills, Non-cognitive skills, Workplace/work readiness competencies, Social-emotional learning (SEL) skills, Transferable skills, Employability skills.
IT experts assess the individual’s initial skills, and scale attainment levels of the specific IT goals; cybersecurity, python programming, social engineering and big data analysis. 

Sensitization by going public and giving talks, in the private and public sectors; 

Q3. Upon completion, an independent evaluation system is adopted to certify rehabilitation; ready to be fully reintegrated into society, or where inadequacies lie, a willingness to return to school under constant supervision and mentoring; 

Establishing a feedback loop with educators and employers, such arrangements provide input and feedback on the relevance of the training and the quality of the graduates.                                                                    

Q4. Trained and certified participants provide recent information to law enforcement agencies in order to aid in the detection, investigation, arrest, prosecution of cybercrimes in Nigeria. Our repentant youth become the trainers serving as multipliers and ingraining their experience. 

2021-PLAN .docx

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kbuSlfFKYodDEo8MoJvIXr0M1WAKvxKk/view?usp=sharing

1. Organizational Structure

1. Number of personnel

Paid full time workers

6

Paid part time workers

12

Volunteers

15

TOTAL

33

MAJU Foundation provides the psychological intervention.                          Dr. Umukoro, Omonigho Simon; PhD, MSc, BSc, Dip, an industrial and organizational psychologist. 

Headed by IT Specialist Austin Yusuf of Cybertalk Naija provides IT components.

Velma-ARC members include;       

Project Director/Co-Convener – David 'Diya Ashaolu*, LL.M (Harvard), CC.E (USA), FNSIS
Obtained Master of Law(LL.M) from Harvard Law School, Certified Fraud Examiners, USA, Leadership Certificate of the British Council from Cambridge University, UK, in 2018. Currently a PhD Candidate at the Nigerian Defense Academy with concentration in cybersecurity. Institute of National Security and Intelligence Studies. A widely read author; 

https://docs.google.com/docume...

Director/Co-Convener – Ms Carla Therese Ceravolo*
Executive partner at Velma Foundation. A citizen journalist, new media and democracy advocate. An Australian located in Tokyo, Japan, she is the International Liaison Officer for the Foundation and co-convener of Velma-ARC. A victim of cybercrimes devoted to fighting cybercrimes and promoting restorative justice for cybercriminals.

Director/Co-Convener – Dr. Abiodun Oduwole*, LL.B, BL, LL.M, Ph.D, MCIArb (UK) A Co-Founder of Velma Foundation.
Holds a Master of Laws Degree from Kingston University. London and Ph.D in International Commercial Arbitration from University of Abuja, Nigeria. A member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, U.K. His published books include, Commercial Arbitration and Conciliation in Nigeria: Law, Practice and Procedure (2012), Basic Concepts in Cyber Law (2012) among others. Currently a faculty member of the Nile Uni. of Nigeria Faculty of Law, Abuja. 

Project Coordinator – Joy Wonne*
A lawyer and broadcaster, the Project Coordinator for Velma-ARC responsible for the daily affairs and reporting online and radio. Also a writer and has co-authored an internationally published book titled, "Covid-19: Pandemic Labor and Employment Law Measures Around the World". Interests pan across technology, media and intellectual property law.

Velma  Foundation  is  the Corporate  Social  Responsibility  arm  of Velma  Solicitors, strategically positioned at the capital Abuja. 

As a philanthropist and humanitarian outreach across Nigeria, striving to meet the needs of those who are helpless and vulnerable, our activities include;

*Business  Empowerment  Outreach  to  indigenes  of  Ibadan,  Oyo  State,  Nigeria  in  2018 wherein  over  100  persons were empowered with business investment  seeds,  that  has  turned  around their economic lot. 
*Educational  Scholarships,  including  to  indigent  students  attending  the  Nigerian  Law  School,  University of Abuja, National Open University of Nigeria, Olabisi Onabanjo University 
*Provision  of  Educational  and  Health-based  human  resource  capacity  to  Internally  Displaced  Persons at Kuchingoro, Abuja 
*Distribution  of  Relief  Materials  to  different  IDP  Camps  and  Motherless  Babies’  Homes/Orphanages 
*Outreach  to  physically  challenged  individuals,  in  conjunction  with  the  Atmosphere  of  Love  Chaplaincy and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Disability Matters
With our team of staff drawn from different parts of the globe, encouraging diversity of race and gender, we believe we have what it takes to change the world in our own little way, through quality humanitarian services based on professional knowledge, competence, experience, integrity and credibility.    The aim of the Velma-ARC program is to provide ethical role models who can constitute a fundamental step for education and prevention. Our Project Coordinator is a woman. The directorship is 50% female, so too is the psychology team. At the Velma-ARC Bootcamp, we had over 60% women as our volunteers and staff. The program is also open to female participants.

Collaborating with multilateral and international partners to establish global standards.        

For the very purpose of strengthening civic advocacy and local engagement,  becoming a Solver would be the sounding board for our endeavors, the involvement boosting our campaigns. Such association would allow Velma-ARC to influence global agendas that, in return, affect our strategic positions and promote stability and growth.
Velma-ARC weighs heavily on the value-system integration of partnerships with programs like Solve contributing to, and optimizing the efficiency to effectively curb the perpetration of cybercrime.
Information portals as partnership-enabled are means by which Velma-ARC can reach out to the community with our experiences and expose the dangers of cybercrimes as relevant to our time.
It is important to realize that there is no perfect security and also that there is a need for concerted collaboration from a range of stakeholders in order to keep up-to-date with new developments and prevent cybercrime victimization.
Through this partnership experience, Velma-ARC perceives this amalgamation as instrumental in giving focus to the digital discrepancies overwhelming Nigeria, and the very need to strengthen not only cybersecurity but also digital education accountability.                                                                    The transnational nature of cybercrime makes it critical for Velma-ARC to participate in global forums, establish intelligence- and threat-sharing partnerships, and collaborate on preventing and investigating cybercrimes.  Beyond governments and across borders, the digital age connects us all. The security of all users—and the well-being of societies and economies around the world—depends on a concentrated effort to thwart the increasingly costly and threatening cyber risks that undermine the world order.

Cyberspace is a challenging environment that is fast and continuously evolving. The economic vitality and national security largely depend on a stable, safe and resilient cyberspace, hence the need to institute an effective risk management system and enhancement of the capacity to carry out forensic investigation to tackle it. 

While the world’s best NCAs have comprehensive strategies, it is not possible for a single organization to deliver all the components on its own. Partnerships that involve other players in the cybersecurity ecosystem—including those in the private sector, academia, and other public-sector areas, both local and international—are essential to combat the cybersecurity risks of a country.

Endeavoring to curb and address the root causes of cybercrime, reducing recidivism processes, reintegrate disengaged youths, strengthen prevention of forced recruitment and utilization initiatives all pervasive in the current climate,  the restorative justice program for those trapped in the vicious cycle of cybercrime serves as the way forward.  

Building a bottom-up network is an intrinsic element in creating a national grassroots cyber awareness network that can work on a local, regional and national level in order to provide training, inform policing initiatives and even shape governmental policy on issues of online harms and risks; a necessity for Nigeria in improving its skills for rapid digital security and growth.                             

It is a novel idea, which has only been mooted by various stakeholders in concept but never been executed until now. We believe that this intervention is required for a holistic fight against cybercrimes in Nigeria.   

Artificial Intelligence AI technology
Information Communications Technology ICT
Cybercrime Intervention
Cybersecurity services
Psychology: Criminology

Fighting cybercrime is a huge task. 

The need for collaboration is hinged on the fact that the Internet environment is borderless and represents the world with the highest population. Being transnational in nature, it is but obvious that nations across the globe need to strengthen their cooperation and form alliances as well as ensure that their legal, technical and institutional measures structures are created and work in coherence.                                                                  As of 8 May 2020 Interpol National Central Bureau in Abuja Nigeria agreed to forward their cybercriminals to our services. The network of corroboration including Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, National Information Technology Development Agency, Ministry of Communications Technology, Nigerian Communications Commission, Nigerian Correction Services (Prisons), Ministry of Justice, Nigeria Police, Nigerian Bar Association and the Judiciary stand committed to support the pioneering endeavors of Velma-ARC.                                                                                                  Partnering with traditional authorities and government agencies to garner community engagement and support, this gives credibility to Velma-ARC. New and unknown to the community, the network therefore increases the rates of participation, engagement and retention. Through such networks, Velma-ARC can serve to influence the formulation of policies that would specifically address cybercrime.                                                                    AI-based surveillance offers many unique advantages over conventional tools. Through predictive policing techniques – such as algorithmic scanning and data analytics – these  technologies are used to identify presumed early warnings. It enhances cost efficiencies, decreases reliance on security forces, and allows authorities to cast a much wider net than traditional methods.  

Sensitization through cybersecurity awareness is considered to be an effective preventative measure in order to harden the softest component, human vulnerability.  Use of the internet is not limited to adults, but in this era of technology and multimedia, knowledge of cybersecurity is also important for children.  
Due to the generally low to moderate level of awareness among Internet users, one of the vital measures to be taken is to cultivate knowledge and awareness from their early age. Young children specifically, need to be educated to operate in a safe manner in cyberspace and to protect themselves in the process.                                                                        
However, there are several challenges to cybersecurity education. Teachers lack knowledge and expertise regarding cyberspace. Schools and government ministries may lack resources and facilities to implement cybersecurity education. The speed of technological change results in new risks, requiring new solutions.                                                                                        Comprehensive reforms should focus on policy and programs. Regulatory interventions could include national strategies, establishing industry councils, and reforming and updating curricula; instituting new standards, accreditation, and certification for digital competencies and trades. 
Efforts to create digital jobs in the public sector by embracing open government principles and providing safe, accessible online services to citizens in urban and rural areas are encouraged. Governments can step up the provision of digital services and information, and harness digital tools to collect, manage, and use data to inform decision making. Such elements will help not only Nigeria but all targeted groups to improve digital skills for rapid digital growth.                           

Evidence shows the manipulative drive of the terrorist group Boko Haram, which has leveraged on the vulnerability of the Nigerian youth to deepen their process and drive for recruitment and radicalization, targeting mostly disaffected and unemployed youths who live in hostile environments; these factors put together makes Nigeria a rich ground for cyber terrorism. In effect, the threat of cyber terrorism cannot but increase in intensity as long as there are knowledgeable and skilled youths occupying positions of authority in terrorist organizations.      
The prevalence of fear of attack and real destruction of lives and prosperity aided and abetted by the Internet, namely through cyber-criminality, have devastating effects on human security; lives lost, family dislocation, poor health-service delivery, school closure, stoppage of farming activities and other means of likelihood. The challenges of protecting the impoverished are compounded by deteriorating socio-economic fragility exacerbating the need to turn to crime, and in desperation for refugee mobility as ways out. It is critical to curtail such diaspora.
African countries including Nigeria must adopt national strategies for education and skills development, focusing not only on youth but also on adult workers, dropouts, informal-economy workers, and those from economically and socially disadvantaged groups. Responding to the unique conditions of youth and focusing on their psycho-social needs, Velma-ARC has created a program to engage and rehabilitate cybercrime youth offenders.    Focusing on digitalization will help African countries including Nigeria move forward with their plans to improve IT skills for their students and position themselves for rapid digital growth.       
        

Coding, programming and computer science are disrupting learning in the world already. But large disparities remain in digital skills development across Africa. The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the need for digital skills, therefore education and training need to become more affordable, relevant, context-vigilant and inclusive. 

Top-down vision and commitment need to be present to enable ecosystems and content. ICT infrastructure is vital for delivering digital skills to students. Governments in the region should set policies or strategies for school-based ICT in education; basic computing, specific digital curricula and concrete objectives related to ICT literacy at all school levels. 

The speed of technological change results in new risks, requiring new solutions. Volunteering in projects which demand constructive use of IT savvy-ness; developing parent education materials on supervising children in internet time, developing IT applications for life-long learning inclusive of empowering women, the elderly and the disabled to plug into the info tech world, authoring blog sites and other online media information portals where they share their experiences and expose the dangers in cybercrimes, teaching codes they have acquired at the Velma-ARC ICT hub. 

Velma-ARC believes we can contribute valuable skills, creative strategies, and wider networks for collecting and disseminating information that can be used to strengthen not only cybersecurity but also digital education accountability. Seeking to diversify the range of actors – and the evidence base– contributing to the principles of inclusivity and empowerment; enhancing not only cybersecurity efforts but also pluralism, civil liberties, and the functioning of government. 

Empowering all African women, rather than just those at the top, calls for systematic and concerted action by governments, businesses, and community leaders. Five priority areas stand out;                                                            First, Africa must expand its human capital by investing in girls’ education; women need far more support to develop their digital, financial, and legal literacy, and the skills required for the future of work.                                  Second, African countries should be looking for ways to create more economic opportunities for women in both the informal and formal economies.                                                                          
Third area: ensuring that women have equal access to the digital and mobile technologies that increasingly open doors to economic opportunity (Only around 25% of women have access to the mobile Internet)                              Fourth, policymakers, businesses, and community leaders need to make a greater effort to change deep-rooted social attitudes about women’s role in society and work.                               
Fifthly, African women need the support of the law, which starts with actually enforcing anti-discrimination laws where they already exist.  Even as young women enter digital jobs in the ICT sector and across other industries, social norms, stereotypes and gender biases may limit their career advancement. 
Velma-ARC recognizes the importance of collaborating with employers to ensure that young women can enter and retain digital jobs. Gender sensitive recruitment will help to ensure participation in digital programs and to ensure that they benefit from the training and placement. Jobs involving online work offer flexibility that can help young women to overcome mobility constraints and combat restrictive gender norms. 

Cybersecurity should be seen as the collection of tools, policies, security concepts, security safeguards, guidelines, risk management approaches, actions, training, best practices, assurance and technologies that can be used to protect the cyber environment, the organization and assets; a minimal requirement to enhance the prosperity of nations.                                      AI-based surveillance offers many unique advantages over conventional tools. It enhances cost efficiencies, decreases reliance on security forces, and allows authorities to cast a much wider net than traditional methods.        The need for regulatory policies governing AI is recognized in UNESCO (2020) as not being alone in attempting to set global standards for the ethics of AI, supporting the argument that more policymakers should urgently consider regulations addressing advances made in AI and robotics, as well as issues of ownership, management and control (Iphofen & Kritikos, 2019).      Digitization of data collection for official statistics is presented as having a major potential impact on society.  Accomplished through various means such as the “Great Firewall of China,” is used to censor the flow of information, the mass implementation of surveillance cameras with facial and gait  recognition capabilities, voice recognition software within phones, and similar technologies. Through predictive policing techniques – such as algorithmic scanning and data analytics – these technologies are used to identify presumed early warnings. From this perspective, it can be argued the extensive governmental support for cybersecurity pays back in multiple  ways: economic development, up-to-date knowledge available for national cyber-defense,  and strengthening the political/diplomatic role of the country in the international arena.                                                               

Digital skills, implemented through digital competency frameworks, have become a critical component of building the human capital African countries need in order to capitalize on economic transformation and generate workers and entrepreneurs capable of thriving despite shocks like the current COVID-19 pandemic.                                                                                                

African countries including Nigeria must adopt national strategies for education and skills development, focusing not only on youth but also on adult workers, dropouts, informal-economy workers, and those from economically and socially disadvantaged groups.

Comprehensive reforms should focus on policy and programs. Regulatory interventions could include national strategies, establishing industry councils, and reforming and updating curricula; instituting new standards, accreditation, and certification for digital competencies and trades. Efforts to create digital jobs in the public sector by embracing open government principles and providing safe, accessible online services to citizens in urban and rural areas are encouraged.

Digitization of data collection for official statistics is presented as having a major potential impact on society. Governments can step up the provision of digital services and information, and harness digital tools to collect, manage, and use data to inform decision making. The tech sector provides a vital local source of expertise, not just for the introduction of e-government or digital identification but also for strengthening the value chains of other sectors, and positively impacting on employment in those sectors. Such elements will help not only Nigeria but all targeted groups to improve digital skills for rapid digital growth.      

For livelihoods and enterprise development such networks strengthen civic advocacy and local engagement.