Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have arrested a pastor, Cletus Nwachukwu Egole, a.k.a Alewa, of the Holy Blessed Trinity Sabbath Church, Orlu, Imo State, a prophet with the Association of Jewish Faith, Michael Uba and 14 others over the killing and series of violent as well as unprovoked attacks on security operatives and facilities in the Southeastern part of Nigeria.

The arrest, according to a statement today, March 28, by the spokesman of the Force Headquarter, Abuja, Frank Mba, is an outcome of painstaking, deliberate and tireless efforts by operatives of the Nigeria Police working in collaboration with their counterparts from the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Airforce.

“Police investigations clearly established and linked the suspects to several incidents of attacks and murder of security personnel as well as stealing, unlawful possession of firearms, arson and malicious damage to operational assets of military and law enforcement agents.

“Specifically, investigations revealed that the duo of Ugochukwu Samuel a.k.a Biggy and Raphael Idang were among the criminal elements that attacked policemen on duty at a checkpoint on 24th December, 2020 along Orlu-Ihiala Road in Imo state where two police officers were killed and a Police Hilux patrol van set ablaze.

“In addition, both were part of a larger group that attacked a police reconnaissance team on 13th January, 2021 killing one police officer. Ugochukwu Samuel a.k.a Biggy, who sustained a bullet wound during an attack by his gang on a military convoy in which some soldiers were killed and weapons carted away, was subsequently arrested while receiving treatment in a hospital. Both suspects confessed to being active members of IPOB and ESN.”

The statement said that the pastor and the prophet among the gang were the masterminds of the various attacks on security personnel, in addition to providing spiritual cover for the gang.

“Cletus Nwachukwu Egole aka Alewa’s house was used by the gang members to plan their nefarious operations. He also donated his late brother’s farmland for use as a hideout and training camp for the gang.”

The police gave the names of those that were arrested as Ugochukwu Samuel a.k.a Biggy, 28-year-old native of Arochukwu LGA in Abia State; Raphael Idang, 31-year-old native of Odukpani LGA of Cross River state; Cletus Nwachukwu Egole aka ‘Alewa’, 60-years-old native of Orlu in Imo State.

Others are Michael Uba, 33yrs from Imo State; and twelve (12) others in the course of investigation, were implicated in multiple felonies committed across several states in the South-Eastern part of the Federation. The suspects were arrested in various parts of the country following sustained, and intelligence-driven sting operations.

The statement said that a total of nine (9) AK47 rifles, five other sophisticated firearms, seventeen AK47 Magazines, 549 AK47 live ammunition, 10 Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), camouflage bullet proof vests, walkie talkies and other incriminating items were recovered from the suspects.

The police Force assured that all the suspects will be charged to court on conclusion of investigations.

This was even as the Inspector General of Police, Mohammmed .A Adamu, reiterated that the Force will not tolerate any further attack on its personnel or any citizen by any individual or group under any guise whatsoever.

He assured that Law Enforcement Agents have gathered sufficient intelligence on the attackers and are closing up on scores of suspects already implicated in the attacks either directly or indirectly for financing, aiding and abetting the criminals.

He stressed that no murderer will go unpunished, even as he advised parents or guardians as well as traditional, opinion leaders to weigh in and prevail on their children and wards to desist from towing the destructive paths of crime.

Saudi Arabia has been hit by seven million cyber attacks in the first two months of 2021, according to a new report.

The report from cyber security firm; Kaspersky, said that Saudi Arabia witnessed more than 22.5 million brute force attacks in 2020 on remote desktop protocols (RDPs), the most popular way to access Windows or servers.

Brute force attacks are trial-and-error attempts to guess login information, encryption keys or find a hidden web page.

The report said that the number of attacks significantly increased by 104 percent in March to 2 million, compared to February when there were 983,512.

The jump, the report said, coincided with the government’s announcement restricting office work and other activities.

It said that this situation is not exclusive to Saudi Arabia.

The Kaspersky report showed that brute force attacks against RDPs skyrocketed to reach 3.56 billion globally with the switch to remote work.

Saudi cybersecurity expert, Abdullah Al-Gumaijan explained three factors behind the recent increase in cyberattacks.

“When there’s political tension in the region, cyberattacks immediately rise,” Al-Gumaijan told Arab News. “Also, the utilization of cyberweapons increased due to attackers now realizing the value of such attacks as they continue to prove their power and damage. Therefore, the trends toward investments in cyberattacks are growing.”

The third factor, he said, was the pandemic. “With most people working from home, that means most organizations were forced to ease their security controls to allow their employers to access its environment remotely. This is another window opened to attackers. Flexibility in the paradigm contradicts with security. The more we go secure, the less flexibility we have.”

The report said that one of the most common attacks were against the protocols used by employees to access corporate resources remotely, emphasizing the  need for cybersecurity awareness.

Also, most employees in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region never want to return to pre-pandemic, traditional work paradigms, making the refinement of security measures a serious task for organizations of all sizes.

“People do not want to go back to traditional methods,” said Al-Gumaijan, adding that organizations and governments had realized that virtual mediums were an efficient way of working.

It was considered odd before the pandemic to hold official meetings virtually, he said, whereas nowadays summits at global levels were taking place online, eliminating costs and facilitating communication for everyone.

But this shift also suggested that cybercriminals would continue to attack, therefore organizations must increase cybersecurity awareness among their people, who had become the first line of defense.

“Companies that have good security maturity have now realized that they need to invest in awareness. This is the right response. We should adapt to change, it is good and healthy, cost-effective. You have to raise awareness instead of diving against the wave.”

The Kaspersky report said that more than half of employees believed that technology skills were the most important to develop. But, just as technical skills were important, so were cybersecurity skills.

“Remote work is here to stay,” said Emad Haffar, head of technical experts at Kaspersky. “Even as organizations begin considering re-opening their workplaces, many will continue to include remote work as part of their operating model or even combine working from home and the office in a hybrid format. That means it’s likely these types of attacks against remote desktop protocols will continue to occur at a rather high rate. 2020 made it clear that organizations need to enhance their security measures, and a good place to start is providing stronger protection for their RDP access,” added Haffar.

The company recommended that organizations enable access to RDPs through a corporate VPN, and the use of Network Level Authentication when connecting remotely.

Other steps are using corporate security solutions empowered with network threat protection, enabling multi-factor authentication, and automated security awareness services.