E-Business
Prof. Obadare Underscores Critical Role of Cybersecurity in Nigeria’s AI-Driven Digital Growth
Prof. Obadare Peter Adewale, founder and CVO of Digital Encode, represented by Oluwakayode O. Olatunji, CISO and Group Head of InfoSec & GRC Advisory, emphasized the need for Nigeria to understand the threat landscape and the critical role of cybersecurity in protecting against these threats.
Nigeria CommunicationsWeek reports that the emphasis made by Prof. Obadare is essential for driving sub-sectoral digital growth through Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In his presentation at the one-day ICT Growth Conference organized by the Nigeria Information Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) at the Citi Height Hotel, Lagos, he noted that many African countries lag behind in cybersecurity.
Read Also: Oluyemi Obadare Accepted into Forbes Business Council
Even in Nigeria, the financial sector has been at the forefront of leveraging AI and cybersecurity, contributing about 25%-30% of AI involvement based on local statistics.
He highlighted the potential of AI across various sectors, including finance, health, energy, transportation, defense, medical, and agriculture.
He underscored AI’s ability to predict productivity and its diverse benefits but quickly cautioned against the dangers of AI misuse, stemming from issues such as bias and fairness, inadequate transparency, security vulnerabilities, data privacy concerns, and ethical and moral dilemmas.
The cybersecurity expert discussed the use of AI in threat landscape profiling, crime detection and prevention, and reporting capabilities.
He stressed the importance of responsible AI usage and the need for continued investment in AI and cybersecurity.
Identifying AI Governance, Architecture, Implementation, Operations, and Monitoring (GAIOM) as key elements for effective cybersecurity strategies in responsible AI development, he emphasized the importance of AI architecture, including business and data architecture, technology-infrastructure architecture and the necessity of a security architecture which includes cybersecurity and data privacy protection respectively.
Data protection and privacy are crucial components of AI implementation. The process of implementing AI, from setting goals to security monitoring, is vital.
The role of education and investment in education for driving AI adoption and economic growth cannot be overemphasized.
To fully realize the impact of AI on national development, he advocated for explicitly defined governance objectives, an AI ethical framework, an interdisciplinary approach, robust local content data management, all-inclusive regulatory compliance, tailored best practice risk assessment and mitigation, transparency and explainability, sustained human capacity development, and robust processes to address AI implementation challenges.
He also argued that monitoring AI usage and ensuring its alignment with set goals during the implementation process is critical.
In addition, he called for increased public sector and government investment in education to drive AI adoption and economic growth, noting that the role of education in providing the necessary skills and knowledge for AI implementation cannot be ignored.
He introduced the concept of “knowledge banking,” where knowledge can be monetized to address various economic sectors.
He pointed out that in countries using AI to drive their economies, education is a fundamental prerequisite, and positively disruptive education leads to the needed transformation by developing tailored skill sets.
“When we examine this, it becomes evident that many challenges we face in this part of the world will become easier to address.
“As a country, we have the potential to be a leading light in the knowledge economy because Nigeria is blessed with brilliant men and women,” he said.
Prof. Obadare, who was recently appointed a Professor of Practice by MIVA Open University, Abuja, also proposed a disruption of the educational sector to improve data quality.
He emphasized that relying too heavily on outsourced data libraries can lead to AI biases and stressed the importance of maintaining excellent data quality as a local content treasure.
“To address this, we need to disrupt the educational sector, particularly from primary to tertiary institutions, to focus more on institutional or research-based education.
“For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the global data was sourced from Johns Hopkins Hospital research center, indicating the importance of local research centers.
“We should encourage partnerships with the private and public sectors to create local content hubs, which would attract global tech companies like Meta and Google to invest in our ingenuity.
“Our tertiary education sector should be research-oriented and local content-focused to improve data quality and upskill the workforce, adapting to the challenge of training AI rather than traditional skills,” he concluded.
Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) experts at the 10th annual Cyber Security Weekend – META 2025 held recently, talked about supply chain attacks and reported that by the end of 2024 a total of 14,000 malicious packages were found in open-source projects, a 48% increase compared to the end of 2023. 42 million versions of open-source packages have been examined by Kaspersky throughout 2024 in search for vulnerabilities.
Open-source is software with source code that anyone can inspect, modify, and enhance. Popular open-source packages include GoMod, Maven, NuGet, npm, PyPI, and others.
These are tools that power countless applications and help developers easily find, install, and manage pre-built code libraries, making it simpler to build software by reusing code others have written. Attackers take advantage of the popularity of these and other packages.
In March 2025, the Lazarus Group was reported to have deployed several malicious npm packages, which were downloaded multiple times before removal. These packages contained malware to steal credentials, cryptocurrency wallet data, and deploy backdoors, targeting developers’ systems across Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The attack leveraged GitHub repositories for added legitimacy, highlighting the group’s sophisticated supply chain tactics. Kaspersky’s GReAT also found other npm packages related to this attack. Malicious npm packages could have been integrated into web development, cryptocurrency platforms, and enterprise software, risking widespread data theft and financial losses.
In 2024, a sophisticated backdoor was discovered in XZ Utils versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1, a widely used compression library in Linux distributions. Inserted by a trusted contributor, the malicious code targeted SSH servers, enabling remote command execution and threatening countless systems globally.
Detected before widespread exploitation due to performance anomalies, the incident highlighted the dangers of supply chain attacks. XZ Utils is integral to operating systems, cloud servers, and IoT devices, making its compromise a threat to critical infrastructure and enterprise networks.
In 2024, Kaspersky’s GReAT discovered that attackers uploaded malicious Python packages like chatgpt-python and chatgpt-wrapper to PyPI, mimicking legitimate tools for interacting with ChatGPT APIs.
These packages, designed to steal credentials and deploy backdoors, capitalised on the popularity of AI development to trick developers into downloading them. These packages could have been used in AI development, chatbot integrations, and data analytics platforms, endangering sensitive AI workflows and user data.
“Open-source software is the backbone of many modern solutions, but its openness is being weaponised. The 50% rise in malicious packages by the end of 2024 shows attackers are actively embedding sophisticated backdoors and data stealers in popular packages, which millions rely on.
“Without rigorous vetting and real-time monitoring, a single compromised package can trigger a global breach. Organisations need to secure the supply chain before the next XZ Utils-level attack succeeds,” comments Dmitry Galov, Head of Research Center for Russia and CIS at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team.
Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has launched an investigation into allegations that the confidentiality and integrity of candidates’ personal data may have been compromised by hackers.
The Commission initiated the inquiry following concerns over possible data breaches during examinations.
Preliminary findings indicate that several examination centres may not have implemented adequate technical and organizational measures to safeguard candidates’ personal information, as required under data protection regulations.
Although the incident reportedly affected 379, 997 candidates, the NDPC’s investigation is poised to cover a systemic audit of data processing and third parties.
It will be recalled that JAMB recently admitted that a technical error on its platform affected a total of 379,997 candidates in 157 examination centres across Lagos and the South-East.
Further investigation led to the arrest of at least 20 suspects who are currently in the custody of the Department of State Services and the Nigerian Police Force.
Cyber security firm, Kaspersky, has once again warned that sophisticated cybercriminals increasingly target Africa as ransomware and advanced persistent threats (APTs) escalate across the region.
Speaking at the company’s annual Cyber Security Weekend for the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, the cybersecurity firm’s Global Research and Analysis Team highlighted growing digital threats affecting African nations.
Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa emerged as hotspots, with Kenya recording one of the highest web threat incident rates at 20.1% in first quarter 2025.
“While ransomware is less prevalent in Africa due to lower levels of digitisation and economic constraints, countries like South Africa and Nigeria are seeing a sharp rise in attacks,” said Sergey Lozhkin, head of META and APAC regions at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky noted a 0.01 percentage point increase in African ransomware cases year-on-year, reaching 0.41%, still below global and Middle Eastern averages, but a troubling sign for the continent’s emerging digital infrastructure.
Experts warned that attackers are refining their tactics, shifting focus to unconventional entry points like IoT devices, smart appliances, and misconfigured hardware.
“As these economies expand digitally, sectors such as manufacturing, finance and government are becoming key targets,” said Lozhkin
The cyber-crime landscape is evolving quickly, fuelled by AI tools and dark web access to large language models, which enable less skilled actors to launch convincing phishing and malware campaigns.
Groups like FunkSec, which uses AI-generated code and a low-cost ransom model, are redefining ransomware operations.
“African organisations face the dual challenge of expanding digital footprints and limited cybersecurity awareness. This makes layered defense strategies, including network segmentation, real-time monitoring and regular staff training, essential,” stated Lozhkin
Kaspersky continues to monitor 25 active APT groups in the META region, including SideWinder and MuddyWater, some of which are known to target African institutions.
To bolster defenses, the firm recommends using tools such as its free Anti-Ransomware Tool for Business and the Kaspersky Next suite for threat visibility and response.
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