Section 58: Interpretation

In this Act
"access" means gaining entry into, instructing or communicating with the logical, arithmetical, or memory function resources of a computer system or network;
"Access Device" includes electronic cards such as-
(a) Debit Cards;
(b) Credit Cards;
(c) Charge Cards;
(d) Loyalty Cards;
(e) Magnetic Stripe Based Cards;
(f) Smart Chip Based cards;
(g) EMV Cards;
(h) Passwords;
(i) Personal Identification Number (PIN);
(j) Electronic Plate;
(k) Electronic Serial Number;
(l) Code Number;
(m) Mobile Identification Number;
(n) any account number or other telecommunications service, equipment, or instrument identifier, or other means of account access including telephones, PDAs, etc.;
(o) Automatic Teller Machines;
(p) Point of Sales Terminals; and
(q) other vending machines;

"ATM" means Automated Teller Machine.

"authorised access" means a person has authorised access to any program or data held in a computer if-
(a) the person is entitled to control access to the program or data in question; or
(b) the person has consent to access such program or data from a person who is charged with granting such consent;

"Authorised Manufacturer" means a financial institution which, or any other person who, is authorised under any written law to produce a card;

"authorised officer" or authorised persons" means a member of any law enforcement agency or a person mandated by it, involved in the prohibition, prevention, elimination or combating of computer crimes and cyber security threats;

"Bank Card" means any instrument, token, device, or card whether known as a bank service card, banking card, cheque guarantee card, or debit card or by any other similar name, issued with or without a fee by an issuer for the use of the cardholder in obtaining goods, services, or anything else of value or for the use in automated banking device to obtain money or any of the services offered through the device;

"Card" means a bank card, credit card, or payment card;

"Cardholder" means the person named on the face of a bank card, credit card or payment card to whom or for whose benefit such a card is issued by an issuer;

"Card Making Equipment" means any equipment, machine, plate, mechanism, impression, or any other device designed, used, or capable of being used to produce a card, a counterfeit card, or any aspect or component of a card;

"Computer" means an electronic, magnetic, optical, electrochemical or other high speed data processing device performing logical, arithmetic, or storage functions and includes any data storage facility and all communication devices that can directly interface with a computer through communication protocols but it excludes portable hand held calculator, typewriters and typesetters or other similar devices;

"computer data" includes every information required by the computer to be able to operate, run programs, store programs and store information that the computer user needs such as text files or other files that are associated with the program the computer user is running.

"computer program" or "program" means a set of instructions written to perform or execute a specified task with a computer;

"computer system"-

(a) refers to any device or group of interconnected or related devices, one or more of which, pursuant to a program, performs automated or interactive processing of data;
(b) covers any type of device with data processing capabilities including, computers and mobile phones;
(c) consists of hardware and software which may include input, output and storage components that may stand alone or be connected in a network or other similar devices; and
(d) includes computer data storage devices or media;

"Consumer" means every person or organization who enters into computer based purchase, lease, transfer, maintenance and consultancy service agreements with a computer service provider and the customer and agent of the consumer and includes bank account holders who carry financial cards;

"content data" means the actual information or message sent across during a communication session;

"Counterfeit Card" means a bank card, credit card or a payment card which is fictitious, altered, or forged and includes any facsimile or false representation, deception, or component of such a card, or any such card which is stolen, obtained as part of a scheme to defraud, or otherwise unlawfully obtained, and which mayor may not be embossed with account information or an issuer's information:

"Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) Program" includes any-
(a) intervention designed to counter the persistence of violent radicalization to reduce the incidence of violent activities, change the behaviour of violent extremists, and counter the negative extreme groups while promoting core national values; and
(b) also any program that seeks to identify the underlying causes of radicalization (social, cultural, religious and economic) and develop strategies that provide solutions and also introduce measures to change the attitudes and perceptions of potential recruits, including providing vocational training of prisoners and means of sustainable livelihood and reintegration of reformed extremists to their families and communities;

"Credit" includes a cash loan, or any other financial information;

"Credit Card" means any instrument, token, device, or card, whether known as a charge card or by any other similar name, issued with or without a fee by an issuer for the use of the cardholder in obtaining goods, services, or anything else of value on credit from a creditor or for use in an automated banking device to obtain money or any of the services offered through the devices;

"Creditor" means a person or company that agrees or is authorised by an issuer to supply goods, services, or anything else of value and to accept payment by use of a bank card, credit card, payment card for the supply of such goods, services or anything else of value to the cardholder;

"Critical infrastructure" means, systems and assets which are so vital to the country that the destruction of such systems and assets would have an impact on the security, national economic security, national public health and safety of the country;

"Counterfeit access device" means counterfeit, fictitious, altered, or forged, or an identifiable component of an access device or a counterfeit access device;

"cyberstalking" a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear;
"cybersquatting" means the acquisition of a domain name over the internet in bad faith to profit, mislead, destroy reputation, and deprive others from registering the same, if such a domain name is:
(a) similar, identical, or confusingly similar to an existing trademark registered with the appropriate government agency at the time of the domain name registration:

(b) identical or in any way similar with the name of a person other than the registrant, in case of a personal name; and

(c) acquired without right or with intellectual property interests in it.

"damage" means any impairment to a computer or the integrity or availability of data, program, system or information that-

(a) causes financial loss;

(b) modifies or impairs or potentially modifies or impairs the medical examination, diagnosis, treatment or care of one or more persons;

(c) causes or threatens physical injury or death to any person; or

(d) threatens public health or public safety;

"data" means representations of information or of concepts that are being prepared or have been prepared in a form suitable for use in a computer;

"database" means digitally organized collection of data for one or more purposes which allows easy access, management and update of data;

"device" means any object or equipment that has been designed to do a particular job or whose mechanical or electrical workings are controlled or monitored by a microprocessor;

"electronic communication" includes communications in electronic format, instant messages, short message service (SMS), e-mail, video, voice mails, multimedia message service (MMS), Fax and pager;

"electronic device" means a device which accomplishes its purpose electronically and this includes, computer systems, telecommunication devices, smart phones, access cards, credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards etc.;

"electronic record" means a record generated, communicated, received or stored by electronic, magnetic, optical or other means in an information system or for transmission from one information system to another;

"Electronic transfer of fund" means any transfer of funds which is initiated by a person by way of instruction, authorisation or order to a bank to debit or credit an account maintained with that bank through electronic means and includes point of sales transfers, automated teller machine transactions, direct deposits or withdrawal of funds, transfer initiated by telephone, internet and card payment;

"Expired Card" means a card which is no longer valid because the term shown of it has expired;

"Financial Institution" includes any individual, body, association or group of persons, whether corporate or unincorporated which carries on the business of investment and securities, a discount house, finance company and money brokerage whose principal object includes factoring project financing equipment leasing, debt administration, fund management, private ledger services, investment management, local purchase order financing, export finance, project consultancy, financial consultancy, pension fund management, insurance institutions, debt factorization and conversion firms, dealer, clearing and settlement companies, legal practitioners, hotels, casinos, bureau de change, supermarkets and such other businesses as the Central Bank or appropriate regulatory authorities may, from time to time, designate;

"Financial Transaction" means,
(a) a transaction which in any way involves movement of funds by wire or other electronic means;

(b) involves one or more monetary instruments;

(c) involves the transfer of title to any real or personal property;

"function" includes logic, control, arithmetic, deletion, storage, retrieval and communication or telecommunication to, from or within a computer;

"Identity Theft" means, the stealing of somebody else personal information to obtain goods and services through electronic based transactions;

"Infrastructure Terminal" includes terminals which includes GSM Phones that can be used to access bank or any other sensitive information, Point of sales terminals (POS) and all other Card Acceptor Devices that are in use now or may be introduced in the future;

"Interception" in relation to a function of a computer system or communications network, includes listening to or recording of communication data of a computer or acquiring the substance, meaning or purport of such and any act capable of blocking or preventing any of these functions;

"Issuer" includes a financial institution which or any other entity who is authorised by the Central Bank to issue a payment card;

"Law Enforcement Agencies" includes any agency for the time being responsible for implementation and enforcement of the provisions of this Act;

"Minister" means the Attorney General of the Federation;

"Modification" means deletion, deterioration, alteration, restriction or suppression of data within computer systems or networks, including data transfer from a computer system by any means.

"network" means a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communications channels that allow sharing of resources and information;

"Payment Card" means any instrument, token, device, or card, or known by any other similar name, and encoded with a stated money value and issued with or without a fee by an issuer for use of the cardholder in obtaining goods, services, or anything else of value, except money;

"person" includes an individual, body corporate, organisation or group of persons;

"President" means the President, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;

"Phishing" means the criminal and fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication through e-mails or instant messaging either in form of an email from what appears from your bank asking a user to change his or her password or reveal his or her identity so that such information can later be used to defraud the user;

"Purchasing Forged Electronic" means a Credit or Debit Transfer Instruments such as Credit Card, Debit Card, Smart Card, ATM or other related electronic payment system devices;

"Receives" or "Receiving" means acquiring possession, title or control or accepting a card as security for credit;

"Revoked Card" means a card which is no longer valid because permission to use it has been suspended or terminated by the issuer, whether on its own or on the request of the cardholder;

"Service provider" means-
(a) any public or private entity that provides to users of its services the ability to communicate by means of a computer system, electronic communication devices, mobile networks; and

(b) any other entity that processes or stores computer data on behalf of such communication service or users of such service;

"Sexually explicit conduct" includes at least the following real or simulated acts-

(a) sexual intercourse, including genital genital, oral genital, anal genital or oral anal, between children, or between an adult and a child, of the same or opposite sex;

(b) bestiality;

(c) masturbation;

(d) sadistic or masochistic abuse in a sexual context; or

(e) lascivious exhibition of the genitals or the pubic area of a child. It is not relevant whether the conduct depicted is real or simulated;

"Spamming" means an abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages to individuals and corporate organizations;

"Traffic" means to sell, transfer, distribute, dispense, or otherwise dispose of property or to buy, receive, possess, obtain control of, or use property with the intent to sell, transfer, distribute, dispense, or otherwise dispose of such property; and

"traffic data" means any computer data relating to a communication by means of a computer system or network, generated by a computer system that formed a part in the chain of communication, indicating the communication's origin, destination, route, time, date, size, duration, or type of underlying service.