Technology
FBNQuest Advises Firms What to do to Manage Rising Cyber-Attacks
By Adedapo Adesanya
As Africa faces the threat of rising cybercrimes, FBNQuest, through its Thought Leadership medium, has called on the need to recognise the strategic importance of managing companies’ security infrastructure.
In a note made available to Business Post, it stated that organisations of all sizes should be looking at what to do when (not if) they are hit by cyber-attacks.
Cybercrime is estimated to cost Africa $4 billion a year (a figure that hits $450 billion worldwide), broken down into yearly losses of $570 million, $500 million, and $36 million for the economies of South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, respectively.
Drawing real-life parallels, in early October 2020, Uganda’s telecoms and banking sectors were plunged into a crisis in the wake of a major hack on Pegasus Technologies that compromised the country’s mobile money network.
Hackers used approximately 2,000 mobile SIM cards to gain access to the system, and an estimated $3.2 million was stolen.
In June 2020, the second-largest hospital operator in South Africa, Life Healthcare, was hit by a cyberattack in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, paralysing the 6,500-bed provider and forcing it to switch to manual backup systems.
As per the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol), the most prominent threats in Africa, based on input from Interpol member countries and data drawn from private sector partners, identified that the top five threats listed in the report include online scams, digital extortion, email account compromise, ransomware, and botnets.
FBNQuest noted that “the current international threat landscape is incredibly diverse and includes a resurgence of bored teenagers who hack just for the fun of it, nation-state groups, and cybercriminal syndicates and gangs. For the latter groups, the operational objective is to leverage a new exploit to extort millions and achieve an extraordinary return on investment.”
It then tasked organisations to apply the fundamentals of cybersecurity that will offer protection. This includes tightening the email loop, which makes it difficult to fall for phishing attacks.
Others include fending off malicious ransomware, securing network access, shutting down internal threats, solidifying storage and backups, as well as managing vulnerabilities, noting that, “The key to successful vulnerability management is to identify all the ways an attacker can move throughout your network and reach your business-critical assets. Once you have identified these attack paths, you can focus on locking down chokepoints and stopping hackers before they even get started.”
It also tasked parties to ensure that a detailed Incident Response Plan (IRP) is put in place.
“Cyberattacks may be inevitable, but a detailed Incident Response Plan (IRP) provides both a buffer and an antidote if the plan is tested. This means that the first time to verify an IRP is not in the middle of a crisis.
“The best way to determine whether the company’s IRP is effective is through tests that assess the readiness of their incident response teams. These tests, which work for all-size companies, come in the form of fire drills and tabletop exercises (TTXs). Each test serves a different purpose.”
The company noted that while cyber-security has been largely associated with computers and IT infrastructure, greater consumer use of smart devices has raised overall vulnerability. At the enterprise level, shifting to cloud computing may have cut company costs significantly, but it has also increased the risk of digital attacks.
“Despite the broad-based implications of these risks, many businesses are unprepared to deal with them, as the alarming number of threats clearly indicates. These developments imply that security is no longer merely a concern of IT managers, but a key boardroom topic because enterprises need to recognise its strategic importance. Companies need to beef up their security infrastructure to prevent breaches while simultaneously building a sustained organisational culture of safety,” it warned.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria will purchase to new communication satellites to boost Nigeria’s digital infrastructure as part of efforts to achieve President Bola Tinubu’s plan to grow the economy to $1 trillion.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at a press conference to mark Global Privacy Day 2026, organised by the Nigerian Data Protection Commission (NPDC).
Mr Tijani said the approval marked a significant shift in Nigeria’s digital strategy, noting that the country currently stands out in West Africa for lacking active communication satellites, a gap the new assets are expected to address.
“As you know, Mr President has been very clear about his ambition to build a $1 trillion economy, and digital technology is central to achieving that vision,” adding that, “The President has now approved that we should procure two new satellites. Nigeria today is the only country in West Africa with non-communication satellites. And we have been given the go-ahead to procure two new ones, ensuring that we can use that satellite to connect.”
He also said progress had been made on the Federal Government’s flagship 90,000-kilometre fibre optic backbone project, which is aimed at expanding broadband access across the country. According to the minister, about 60 per cent of the fibre project has been completed, while funding for the remaining work has already been secured.
“The 90,000 kilometres fibre optic project is not a dream. About 60 per cent of the work has already been completed, and the funding for the project is secure. As we bring more Nigerians online, connectivity without protection is incomplete. Privacy is the foundation of trust, safety, and sustainability in the digital world.”
“The success of Nigeria’s digital economy will depend not just on infrastructure and talent, but on trust, and the NDPC remains central to building that trust,” the minister said.
Mr Tijani said the Tinubu administration was positioning digital technology as a key driver of inclusive growth, improved public service delivery, and long-term economic expansion, adding that investments were also being channelled into digital skills, rural connectivity, and institutional reforms.
He stressed that the expansion of connectivity must be matched with stronger data protection, especially as Nigeria’s young and digitally active population continues to grow.
Recall that Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) recently granted licenses to three global internet service providers – Amazon’s Project Kuiper, BeetleSat-1, and and Germany-based Satelio IoT Services – as part of efforts to strengthen internet connectivity via satellite and to boost competition among existing internet service providers in the country.
By Dipo Olowookere
In 2026, there should be a surge in individual claims and constitutional privacy actions, a leading Data Protection Compliance Organisation (DPCO) in Nigeria, DataPro, has projected.
In a statement signed by its Head of Emerging Services, Ademikun Adeseyoju, the company noted that this means organisations must remain “litigation ready” by preserving processing records and strengthening internal controls.
In the disclosure to prepare for this year’s Privacy Week themed Privacy in the Age of Emerging Technologies: Trust, Ethics, and Innovation, it noted that 2026 would also be defined by board and executive ownership, as privacy will no longer be an IT-only concern but a standing governance issue requiring regular risk reports and dedicated budgets.
“DataPro anticipates intensity on sector-specific enforcement, with the NDPC (Nigeria Data Protection Commission) focusing on high-risk industries like fintech, healthcare, etc,” a part of the statement made available to Business Post on Wednesday said.
Giving a review of key milestones from the 2025 ecosystem, DataPro said the NDPC moved decisively into active enforcement, publicly naming non-compliant entities, particularly in the financial services sector.
It also said the year witnessed landmark court rulings, affirming that transparency in personal data handling is a constitutionally protected right, as courts awarded significant damages to data subjects for privacy breaches, signalling that organisational size no longer shields against accountability.
The firm noted that regulatory settlements with multinational technology firms have set a high bar for behavioural advertising and data processing standards in Nigeria.
In the cybersecurity landscape, the year under review experienced an unprecedented surge in cyber threats, as attackers shifted their focus from technical exploits to identity-driven campaigns, targeting valid credentials with high precision.
“This identity-centric threat environment has made robust access management a non-negotiable requirement for corporate resilience,” it stressed.
As for the 2026 Privacy Week, DataPro has lined up activities, with launch of the Privacy Pulse A year-in-review of Nigeria’s Data Protection Ecosystem on Thursday, January 29.
The next day, a webinar tagged Privacy Pulse to train attendees on the new mandatory bi-annual in-house audits and DPO certification requirements will hold and next Monday, there is an interactive quiz designed to test organizational response to identity-driven cyber campaigns.
A social media session answering complex privacy questions via concise 30-second videos is slated for Tuesday, February 3, and the next day, it is for a social media showcase where winners will be selected for their insights on building Trust, maintaining Ethics in AI, and fostering Innovation under the NDPA.
By Adedapo Adesanya
MTN Nigeria has revealed that it experienced 9,218 fibre cuts in 2025, causing widespread network disruptions across the country.
The telecommunications giant also reported that 211 sites were affected by theft and vandalism as of November 30, 2025, impacting essential services relied upon by customers daily.
The company recorded a total of 1,624,263 customer complaints, all of which were resolved across various service channels during the year. Despite these challenges, MTN reached 85 million subscribers by September 2025.
The chief executive of the telco, Mr Karl Toriola, made these revelations in his latest post on LinkedIn, acknowledging the company’s responsibility for network performance and its efforts to improve the customer experience.
He stated that the services fell short of customers’ expectations and clarified that some of these gaps were shaped by real operational challenges such as fibre cuts, theft, and vandalism.
“Their impact is felt directly by customers and reflected in what they tell us. We take responsibility for the signals we receive and for how we respond to the realities that shape the customer experience on our network,” he said.
Regardless, Mr Toriola added that, “There is progress to be proud of. And we clearly still have work to do.”
“We are not where we want to be yet, but our commitment to putting the customer at the centre of everything we do remains constant.”
As MTN prepares to celebrate its 25th anniversary in 2026, Mr Toriola reaffirmed the company’s dedication to listening to customers, responding quickly to issues, and driving consistent service improvements.
Some other milestones announced include addressing 1,624,263 customer complaints across all communication channels as well as receiving best network recognition from Ookla, getting back to profitability, and declaring interim dividends to shareholders.
The report comes in the wake of a February 2025 initiative by the Federal Ministry of Works and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, which established a joint standing committee on the protection of fibre optic cables in Nigeria.
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