Using VPN Exposes You To Cybercrimes – APC

The ruling party, All Progressives Congress, APC has come out to warn Nigerians against using VPN to access the banned microblogging platform, Twitter.

The party recently gave the warning in a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja by the National Secretary of its Caretaker Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee CECPC, Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe.

According to him, several private investments have already gone down the drain as a result of using VPN, so citizens must be aware of the risk they are taking.

He added that legitimate private and public entities operating in the country must be wary of VPNs if they want to avoid the many dangers that come with exposing themselves to cybercrimes.

His words, “There arr many risks involved in accessing contents, especially social media using the Virtual Private Network (VPN) which is vulnerable to the heinous activities of criminal hackers who can steal data and money in bank accounts.”

“This advisory is necessary because despite the massive compliance by Nigerians to the federal government’s suspension of Twitter operations in the country, some individuals in the country have resorted to VPN to access Twitter whose unwholesome activities were detrimental to peace and public order in the country.”

“Those using the VPN are advised to desist in their own interests because of its risks, which include data theft, illegal access to strategic company documents and possible economic espionage.”

“The APC emphasises that VPN users expose their devices to vulnerabilities because the network allows third party- access to personal data and changes user location to another country which compromises data integrity. Your record can be traced to another country that is not yours, with all the risks that entails.”

“Many individuals and organisations using VPN have lost their investments after compromising the security of their devices. The APC strongly advises that Nigerians should avoid installing or using VPN to access social networking sites in order to protect their privacy and security online. This is in our individual and collective interest.”