No / The degree of insecurity occasioned by fraudulent practices in Nigeria has been of great concern economically, especially as it relates to overseas transactions. This paper was designed to mitigate this problem for Nigeria and countries with similar dispositions. Based on a survey involving field trip to Nigeria, the paper examines the general security situation in Nigeria and its mutual impacts with computerisation, miniaturisation and Location-Based Authentication (LBA). It was discovered that both computerisation and miniaturisation had some negative effects on cybersecurity, as these were being exploited by fraudsters, especially using ‘advance fee fraud;’ popularly called 419. As a countermeasure, the research examined the possibility of using LBA and further digitisation of the GSM Mobile country codes down to City/Area codes along with GSM Mobile/Global Positioning System (GPS) authentications. Where necessary, these could be combined with the use of a web-based Secret Sharing Scheme for services with very high security demands. The anticipated challenges were also examined and considered to be of negligible impacts; especially roaming. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)

Yes / The state of insecurity occasioned by fraudulent practices in Africa has been of concern economically, both at home and abroad. In this paper, we propose ways to mitigate this problem, using Nigeria as a case study. Based on surveys in West Africa, the paper examines the security situation in the continent and its mutual impacts with computerisation, miniaturisation and Location-Based Authentication (LBA). It was discovered that computerisation and miniaturisation had negative effects on cyber-security, as these were being exploited by fraudsters, using advance fee fraud; called 419. As a countermeasure, the paper examines the possibility of using LBA and digitisation of the GSM Mobile country codes down to city/area codes along with GSM/GPS authentications. These could also be combined with the use of a web-based Secret Sharing Scheme for services with very high security demands. The challenges of roaming were also examined and considered to be of negligible impact. / Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF)