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The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has launched the 2026 National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, urging Nigerians, businesses and institutions to adopt stronger digital safety practices.
The month-long campaign, themed “Together for a Safer Cyberspace,” is aimed at promoting collective responsibility for protecting Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.
In a statement signed by NITDA Director of Corporate Communications, Mrs. Hadiza Umar, the organisation said the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies had also brought new forms of cyber threats, including AI-driven social engineering, deepfake impersonation, voice cloning and fraudulent QR-code attacks, also known as “quishing.”
NITDA said cybersecurity was no longer solely the responsibility of information technology professionals, government agencies or security experts, stressing that securing Nigeria’s digital landscape requires the active participation of every citizen, business and institution operating within the online ecosystem.
The agency advised Nigerians to adopt strong cyber-hygiene practices to protect their personal and organisational digital assets.
It urged users to create strong and unique passwords and avoid using the same passwords across multiple accounts, while recommending the use of secure password managers to create and store complex passphrases.
NITDA also advised Nigerians to enable multi-factor authentication on personal, professional and financial accounts as an additional layer of protection against unauthorised access.
The agency urged users to promptly install security patches and operating system updates to protect their devices against known vulnerabilities.
It warned Nigerians never to share sensitive financial credentials, including one-time passwords, personal identification numbers and online banking login details.
NITDA further advised users to exercise caution when using artificial intelligence and other emerging online tools, particularly by avoiding the upload of sensitive personal, financial or proprietary corporate information to public AI models or unfamiliar online platforms.
The agency also urged Nigerians to verify links and media before interacting with them, warning users to remain alert to suspicious links, unknown attachments and unsolicited requests for personal information, particularly those involving urgent language, synthetic audio or deepfake visuals.
It encouraged responsible social media sharing, noting that oversharing sensitive personal information online could expose users to targeted social engineering attacks.
The agency also recommended frequent offline and cloud backups of important personal and organisational data to facilitate swift recovery in the event of ransomware attacks or system disruptions.
NITDA said that through its computer emergency response structure, it remained committed to equipping citizens and organisations with the tools, knowledge and frameworks required to mitigate digital risks, report incidents and foster a secure and inclusive digital economy.
The agency also encouraged Nigerians to follow its official social media platforms, @NITDANigeria, for cybersecurity updates, awareness tips and threat advisories throughout the campaign.
