…As Routelink, Qualys unveil advanced protection for businesses
By Chinenye Anuforo
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Despite a decline in reported fraud cases from 101,624 in 2020 to 70,111 in 2024, financial losses from cyber fraud in Nigeria rose sharply from ₦11.61 billion in 2020 to a staggering ₦52.26 billion in 2024.
Arising from that, calls to mitigate risks and fortify corporate defenses against evolving digital threats have reached a crescendo.
Routelink Group’s Chief Operating Officer (COO), Stanley Oduah, disclosed this at a recent virtual webinar titled, “De-Risking Your Organization From Cyber Threats with Routelink & Qualys.
This comes as Routelink Group partnered with Qualys to unveil an advanced cybersecurity solution and providing free assessment for enterprises to evaluate their risk exposure as part of moves to encourage the de-risking of organizations from cyber threats.
Justifying the need for an advanced cybersecurity solution, the Routelink Group COO explained that while Cybercrime is on the rise in general, the data from Nigeria is particularly alarming.
He cited a recent report that showed that fraud linked to bank branches alone jumped from ₦133.9 million in Q1 2024 to ₦42.2 billion in Q2 suggesting that attackers are focusing on high-value targets.
Emphasizing the need to strengthen email security, he said that Phishing is still the easiest way for attackers to breach a system noting that Routelink’s email security ensures that fraudulent emails never reach employees.
Routelink & Qualys provide a combined approach to proactive cybersecurity. Routelink Group specializes in providing enterprise solutions to secure and manage enterprise data. It focuses on email security because 91% of cyberattacks start with a phishing email. Its solution blocks phishing attempts, detects email spoofing, and ensures that fraudulent emails never reach employees’ inboxes.
On the other hand, Qualys, a cybersecurity powerhouse, helps businesses strengthen their cybersecurity posture through real-time vulnerability scanning, endpoint protection, and continuous security monitoring.
While Routelink solutions are strong and reliable to stop phishing emails, Qualys solution helps to ensure more security with real-time vulnerability scanning. When used together, Oduah said Routelink prevents initial breaches through email security, and Qualys ensures that any weaknesses in the infrastructure are identified and patched before they can be exploited.
Oduah revealed that the firm recently worked with a top-tier Nigerian financial institution that reduced their phishing incidents by 90% and cut their vulnerability patching time by 40% after integrating both solutions.
In his contributions at the webinar, Rajat Tripathi, Senior Technical Account Manager at Qualys, admitted that financial fraud is increasing in Nigeria despite fewer fraud attacks. He also noted that these attacks were becoming more targeted and sophisticated.
To curb cyber risk, Tripathi advised enterprises in Nigeria to ensure they take significant steps towards improving visibility, automating patching and strengthening email security.
Tripathi is of the opinion that one of the biggest challenges among enterprises, especially banks, is visibility. “Many organizations don’t know where their vulnerabilities are until they’ve already been exploited. Compliance is another issue, banks must adhere to CBN regulations, NDPR, and global standards like GDPR, but many struggle to keep up. Also, incident response time is too slow. The average time to detect a breach is 212 days, by then, the damage is already done!”
He emphasises that criminals are no longer relying on broad attacks. Instead, they are launching highly strategic phishing campaigns, exploiting software vulnerabilities, and leveraging social engineering. “One worrying trend is the rise of ransomware-as-a-service, where attackers can now buy ready-made hacking tools on the dark web,’’ he revealed.
He warned that since attackers are shifting to targeted, high value cyber threats, it is important for businesses wishing to de-risk their operations to implement a Zero-Trust Security Model where every access request should be verified, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) is non-negotiable.
Since many breaches happen because of unpatched vulnerabilities, he said it is extremely necessary to automate security audits and patch management by using automated scanning tools to stay ahead.
“Qualys continuously scans IT environments for vulnerabilities—whether on-prem, in the cloud, or on endpoints. It identifies risks in real-time and helps organizations prioritize what to fix first based on actual exploitability,’’ he further explained.