Prompt: Compare cyber security risks in the U.S. and another country.
Response: Cyber security practices, risks, and understanding differs across the globe. Some countries have relaxed policies regarding their data, whilst others take extreme, and sometimes overbearing measures to ensure no information leaks outside their borders. Nigeria is one of the more interesting countries to compare to the United States. Nigeria has seen explosive population growth as well as growth in its oil industry. With this expansion, Nigerian cyberspace has received increased scrutiny from their government. One key difference between the United States and Nigeria is not written policy, but practical application of their security standards. Unlike the United States, Nigeria suffers from consistent, generational staffing shortages. In search of better pay, many senior Nigerian cyber agents leave for places like Europe and the Americas. This leaves their systems without experienced cyber security officers, with new upcoming cyber teams having to relearn government and company policies every few years. Sadly, this results in cyber security practices not being properly enforced, leading to large breaches, such as the state health agency leak a few months ago, where tens of thousands of documents were exposed. (Wired, 2022) In 2020, however, Nigeria passed a bill to better secure its data and bring about better training practices. America doesn’t have an issue with cyber security employment, due to better benefits and higher pay. This doesn’t mean america is flawless. Unlike Nigeria, where cyberspace has policy but struggle with enforcement, America has a glaring issue of properly educating its workforce on potential threats. For example, hundreds of millions of dollars are lost in revenue every year due to simple, but effective, phishing and ransomware attacks. Proper education could eradicate these issues entirely.