Worry over cyberattacks on financial institutions – Daily Trust

Fresh issues have emerged over cybersecurity threats dealing with Nigeria’s financial sector following a reported information safety incident involving InvestNaija, warnings by First Bank in opposition to malicious cellular functions and alerts over the rising use of synthetic intelligence (AI) by fraudsters.

The developments have heightened issues in regards to the security of shoppers’ private and financial data as cybercriminals deploy more and more subtle strategies to deceive banking prospects and acquire unauthorised entry to delicate information.

In a notification to prospects, InvestNaija disclosed that it obtained details about a possible information safety incident on October 28, 2026, which can have resulted in unauthorised entry to a small portion of buyer information.

The digital funding platform stated the affected information represented lower than one per cent of its prospects’ data.

It defined that uncommon site visitors had been detected throughout its retail channels, prompting quick motion to deal with the risk, strengthen safety controls and defend prospects’ data.

The firm stated it had reported the incident to regulation enforcement authorities and the related regulatory physique according to the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 and different relevant regulatory necessities.

Although the incident was believed to have been contained, InvestNaija warned {that a} third social gathering may need obtained some prospects’ e-mail addresses and different contact data.

It consequently suggested prospects to stay vigilant in opposition to suspicious communications, stressing that it might by no means request passwords, cost particulars or one-time passwords (OTPs) via emails, textual content messages or phone calls.

The platform additionally assured prospects that their investments remained protected and have been unaffected by the incident.

Meanwhile, First Bank has warned prospects a couple of rising rip-off involving fraudulent pop-up messages which will seem on cellular gadgets via malicious functions.

According to the financial institution, the messages are designed to trick customers into disclosing delicate banking data or authorising fraudulent transactions.

One instance includes a pretend safety alert claiming that an account has irregular exercise and instructing the client to log in instantly, full a transaction or change a transaction password.

The financial institution cautioned prospects in opposition to appearing on such messages, describing them as scams.

It suggested customers to obtain functions solely from trusted sources, together with the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, and keep away from putting in software program via suspicious hyperlinks or pop-up commercials.

Customers have been additionally urged to overview put in functions, replace their machine working techniques and safety software program, and be cautious of unfamiliar functions requesting pointless permissions, significantly entry to Accessibility Services or permission to show over different functions.

Separately, Lotus Bank has warned that fraudsters are more and more utilizing AI to create convincing emails, phone calls, textual content messages and movies that may be tough to differentiate from reputable communications.

As a part of its Cybersecurity Awareness Month advisory, the financial institution urged prospects to confirm uncommon cost requests via trusted different channels and keep away from clicking suspicious hyperlinks, opening surprising attachments or scanning unverified QR codes.

It additionally suggested prospects by no means to reveal passwords, private identification numbers or OTPs, and to report suspicious exercise promptly.

Customers have been suggested to confirm surprising requests independently, defend their login credentials and report suspected fraud instantly to their financial institutions.

Experts weigh in

Meanwhile, consultants have stated Nigeria’s financial sector should urgently shift from reactive to proactive cybersecurity methods or danger catastrophic losses.

Professor Obadare Peter Adewale, Professor of Practice in Cybersecurity, Chief Visionary Officer of Digital Encode Ltd stated although the present risk and rising assaults aren’t peculiar to Nigeria, operators within the nation’s financial sector should outsmart the criminals.

Prof Obadare, who warned that synthetic intelligence would amplify current vulnerabilities, urged financial institutions to deal with elementary safety gaps.

“If you don’t spend the money on cybersecurity, you invariably will still spend the money. Before a breach, everybody will be calculating and arguing. Still, when there is a single attack, everybody starts to throw money at cybersecurity,” Obadare acknowledged.

The cybersecurity professional criticised what he described as a persistent reactive mindset of the numerous organizations within the nation.

Drawing consideration to often-overlooked vulnerabilities, Obadare revealed that inside threats pose better dangers than exterior actors.

“Careless employees and malicious employees are even more than external factors,” he stated, urging organisations to deal with human components alongside technological defences.

He stated expertise doesn’t create vulnerability — folks do. True defence lies in steady consciousness, moral intelligence, and institutional self-discipline.

The professor cited current high-profile breaches at world expertise giants for instance that even probably the most subtle organisations should not immune.

He referenced a leak at NVIDIA, the world’s largest AI infrastructure supplier, attributable to improper patch administration, and a Microsoft Co-Pilot echo leak, in addition to safety failures at DeepSeek and ChatGPT.

“On the very day DeepSeek was launched, their entire database was exposed on the internet – chat histories, API keys, backend operational details, system logs, user prompts, everything,” Obadare disclosed, including that ChatGPT suffered a knowledge breach affecting over 1.2 million subscribers as a result of vulnerabilities in open-source elements.

He additionally criticised what he noticed as non-functional Security Operations Centres throughout the sector.

The professional emphasised that efficient cybersecurity requires balancing safety actions with sustainable operations. “Resilience is about balancing between protection activities and sustainable activities. When one cheats the other, there will be a problem,” he stated.

Olalekan Otufowora, one other professional, stated sturdy regulatory measures needs to be carried out by the CBN to strengthen the financial sector’s cyber defences.

Otufowora known as on the CBN to restructure its oversight strategy and consolidate supervision of cybersecurity, information safety, and third-party administration inside a single supervisory construction to make sure consistency throughout all regulated entities.