A Review of Trends and Issues of Cybersecurity in Academic Libraries

Cyber security is rapidly becoming an important aspect of ICT around the globe. In Nigeria there have been increase in the rate of cybercrime and various organizations have become targets of cyber criminals. Cybercrime can pose a high risk to the economy and security of a nation. The most common types of cybercrime committed in Nigerian academic libraries include hacking, cyber-theft, viruses and worms, spamming, financial fraud, identity theft, cyber and website cloning. This paper examines the effectiveness of electronic security systems also known as cyber security in academic libraries in Nigeria. The paper was introduced by understanding what security is all about and then the perspective of cyber security. It moved on to analyse the various types of threats cyber security are exposed to and also the consequences of inaction. The paper moved on to analyse some cybersecurity actions that can be embarked on such as turning on firewalls, protecting passwords, preventing identity theft and so on. Finally the paper revealed cyber ethics that are to be adhered to. The paper concludes that academic libraries have suffered adversely from security issues and other anti-social menace and that the installation of security devices would drastically improve the situation