Nigeria: NITDA DG urges coordinated response to rising AI-driven cyber threats

The Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa, has called for urgent and coordinated action to address the growing wave of cybersecurity threats powered by artificial intelligence.

Speaking ahead of the inauguration of a proposed national cybersecurity advisory council, Inuwa revealed that the Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy plans to host additional stakeholder engagement sessions to broaden participation and strengthen policy alignment.

He noted that the approach reflects a commitment to inclusivity and collaboration, similar to the framework adopted in developing Nigeria’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

According to Inuwa, the rapid integration of AI into everyday systems is fundamentally reshaping the cybersecurity landscape, introducing more complex, adaptive, and harder-to-detect threats.

“AI is transforming the threat environment. As adoption increases, we must rethink how we approach cybersecurity,” he said.

He highlighted a dual-layered risk environment, where cyberattacks are not only targeting AI systems but are also increasingly being executed using AI tools—significantly expanding the scale and sophistication of potential breaches.

A key concern, he added, is the rise of AI-driven social engineering, particularly the use of deepfake technology to manipulate audio and video content.

“Increasingly, it is becoming difficult to distinguish between real and AI-generated content. We are already seeing cases where deepfakes are used in live virtual interactions,” he warned.

Inuwa stressed that the evolving nature of these threats requires a unified response, noting that no single institution can effectively tackle the challenge in isolation.

“The reality is that cybersecurity is a shared responsibility. Strengthening collaboration between government and the private sector is critical to building resilience,” he said.

He further cautioned that vulnerabilities within a single organisation can have far-reaching consequences across interconnected systems, citing incidents where breaches in financial institutions created exposure across broader payment networks and public infrastructure.

“We are only as strong as our weakest link,” he noted.

The NITDA chief commended the initiative to establish a cybersecurity advisory council, describing it as a vital platform for enhancing coordination, enabling intelligence sharing, and strengthening national preparedness.

He reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to working with stakeholders across sectors to build a more secure and resilient digital ecosystem capable of withstanding emerging AI-driven risks.