By Hamza Ibrahim Chinade.

The Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has organized a capacity building workshop for Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in Taraba state on Internet Security and Safety issues. The training which took place at Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) secretariat Jalingo was aimed at alerting and equipping members of civil society on insecurity concerns and how to prevent themselves against threats such as fraud, hacking, data and documents thefts, phishing, email-spoofing, cybercrime, personality theft, identify theft, online blackmail and harassment and other serious security issues.

Sessions facilitated at the workshop included Understanding Internet Security and Safety, General Online Safety Tips among others. Participants expressed their happiness for the training that some of them described as a barricade to internet insecurity and threats. Ubale M. Umarah of Rural Education Improvement and Development (REID) commended CITAD’s effort at organizing the training and hopes the organization will look at the possibility of holding another similar training for other internet users which according to him are ignorant of what the participants were taught. Another participant, Nadi Fwaje of Taraba State University admitted that the training has provided him with security and safety tips on using the internet and he will now be cautious of what he used to ignore for his own safety.

The training ended with an experience sharing on the theme of the workshop “Internet Security and Safety Training” to allow for debate and make the issues even more practical and glaring, many questions were asked and explanation made by the facilitators.