Daily Trust Foundation trains journalists on cyber security

By Daniel Adaji

Daily Trust Foundation, the Corporate Service Responsibility (CSR) arm of Media Trust Group, has organised a training for journalists on how to work and stay safe on the digital space.

The three-day training which was supported by the Mac Arthur Foundation, was held between 8th and 10th May, 2023.

The Insight learnt that about 15 journalists from different media houses in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) received the training.

The Foundation’s Programme Director, Dr. Theophilus Abbah, said that the need for journalists to be conscious of their personal safety online, necessitated the training.

“Cyber security is a serious issue now and as journalists, you need to take deliberate measures to ensure your personal safety in digital space,” he said.

Dr Abbah also encouraged the participants to maximize the training potentials and build their capacities in cyber security.

Cyber security is a serious issue now

The Chief Information Officer of the Media Trust Group Yusuf Abdullahi while addressing the participants, said that the training was carefully designed to help journalists understand the issues of security around the cyber space and how to mitigate the underlying risks of using the social media.

“This training had been in the pipeline and thank God it is happening now. Cyber security concerns everyone and the journalists need to know how to protect themselves and their media houses while making use of available technologies,” he said.

Daily Trust Foundation Trains Journalists In Cyber-Securityhttps://t.co/8F0uIyVAOh pic.twitter.com/q5TLuwnBQT

— Daily Trust Foundation (@Daily_TrustF) May 11, 2023

He added that the essence of the training was to ensure that participants acquired adequate knowledge to be able to teach their colleagues in the various newsrooms.

“This programme is called train the trainer and we expect that after the training here, you step it down to colleagues in your various newsrooms,” he stressed.

A cyber security expert, Nasil Aminu, said: “Journalism is now in the digital space and many journalists are now learning how to best maximize their digital devices for the job. However, the use of the devices leaves us open to attacks from scammers or hackers,” he said.

The participants who expressed delight at the programme, thanked Daily Trust Foundation and Mac Arthur Foundation for organizing what they described as a timely workshop.