Nigerian cybersecurity authorities have warned businesses and government institutions to strengthen their digital defences following a significant increase in high-impact cyber incidents, including phishing, ransomware, business email compromise and data breaches.
An advisory issued by Nigeria’s Computer Emergency Response Team, ngCERT, said attacks are becoming more sophisticated as criminals gain access to cybercrime-as-a-service platforms and artificial intelligence tools.
Financial institutions, telecommunications companies, government agencies, healthcare organisations and operators of Critical National Information Infrastructure are among the sectors facing heightened risks.
The warning coincides with the start of Nigeria’s 2026 National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
AI Gives Fraudsters New Tools
Artificial intelligence is changing both sides of cybersecurity.
Businesses can use AI to identify suspicious activity and analyse threats, but criminals can use the same technology to create convincing fraudulent messages and automate attacks.
ngCERT said automation and AI are helping attackers conduct more persuasive social-engineering operations, avoid detection and exploit vulnerabilities more efficiently.
NITDA separately warned Nigerians about AI-enabled social engineering, deepfake impersonation, voice cloning and fraudulent QR-code attacks, alongside conventional phishing.
That creates a more difficult environment for ordinary internet users.
A fraudulent voice message can potentially imitate a familiar person, while generated text can make scam emails appear more professional and convincing.
Weak Security Controls Remain Problem
Despite increasingly sophisticated attacks, many successful breaches still depend on relatively basic weaknesses.
ngCERT identified poor identity and access management, inadequate patching, lack of multi-factor authentication and limited staff cybersecurity awareness among recurring vulnerabilities.
NITDA has consequently urged users to enable multi-factor authentication, maintain strong and unique passwords, install security updates promptly and avoid disclosing OTPs, PINs and banking credentials.
It also advised individuals and companies to be cautious about uploading sensitive personal, financial or corporate information to public AI services.
Digital Growth Expands Attack Surface
Nigeria’s growing dependence on digital banking, e-commerce, cloud services and online government platforms makes cybersecurity increasingly important to economic resilience.
Every new connected service can create additional opportunities for businesses and consumers, but also potential entry points for attackers.
Cybersecurity can therefore no longer be treated solely as an IT department issue.
For banks, telecom operators and critical infrastructure organisations, a successful attack can disrupt services used by millions of people.
As Nigeria’s digital economy expands, protecting the systems supporting it is becoming just as important as building the infrastructure itself.
