Cyber Siege: Nigeria Ranks Second Most Targeted African Nation As Attack Surge
The digital landscape in Nigeria faced an unrelenting wave of hostility throughout November 2025, with organizations battling an average of 3,374 cyberattacks every week. This staggering volume of malicious activity places Nigeria as the second most targeted country on the African continent, trailing only Angola, according to the latest Global Threat Intelligence report released by Check Point Research (CPR).
While the broader African region recorded a surprise 13 percent year-on-year decline in cyber incidents, Nigeria bucked this trend entirely. The data reveals a security environment that is significantly more volatile than the global norm, where organizations faced an average of just 2,003 attacks weekly. This discrepancy suggests that while other nations may be finding some reprieve or seeing a shift in attacker focus, Nigeria’s expanding digital economy remains a prime hunting ground for cybercriminals.
The persistence of these attacks raises serious questions about the readiness of the country’s critical infrastructure. As the continent’s most populous nation continues its aggressive push toward digital governance and cashless banking, the surface area for potential exploitation has widened, attracting a sophisticated class of threat actors looking to exploit vulnerabilities in government, financial services, and consumer goods sectors.
A Divergent Trend in Digital Security
The data from Check Point Research paints a picture of a continent with varying degrees of cyber risk. Angola topped the list with a massive 4,251 weekly attacks per organization, followed by Nigeria’s 3,374. Kenya and South Africa followed with 2,384 and 1,863 attacks respectively. The contrast between Nigeria and South Africa is particularly telling; despite both being economic powerhouses, Nigerian organizations are currently facing nearly double the threat volume of their South African counterparts.
This intensity aligns with the specific sectors that came under fire. The report identified Government, Financial Services, and Consumer Goods & Services as the primary targets across the continent. For Nigeria, this is a critical vulnerability. The financial services sector has been the engine of the country’s recent tech growth, and the relentless targeting of banks and fintech platforms poses a direct threat to economic stability and consumer trust.
Security analysts argue that the high volume of attacks is likely a response to the rapid digitization of services without a corresponding increase in cybersecurity infrastructure. As government agencies move sensitive records to the cloud and banks expand mobile services, the potential payout for criminals successfully breaching these systems increases, making the high effort of 3,000+ weekly attacks worth the risk.
The GenAI Double-Edged Sword
Beyond the raw volume of attacks, the November report highlighted a more insidious threat emerging from within organizations: the unregulated use of Generative AI. As businesses rush to adopt tools like ChatGPT and Claude to boost productivity, they are inadvertently opening backdoors for data theft.
The research indicates that one out of every 35 GenAI prompts submitted from enterprise networks in November posed a high risk of sensitive data leakage. This vulnerability is widespread, impacting 87 percent of organizations that use these tools. The phenomenon, often described as “Shadow IT,” involves employees utilizing AI tools without the knowledge or oversight of their IT departments.
The danger lies in the way these models function. Employees often paste proprietary code, internal memos, or sensitive customer data into public AI chatbots to generate summaries or debug software. Once this data is fed into a public model, it leaves the secure corporate environment and could potentially be accessed by others.
Omer Dembinsky, Data Research Manager at Check Point Research, noted that this behavior complicates the security landscape significantly. He explained that the combination of rising ransomware threats and GenAI-related data exposure provides attackers with a powerful toolkit. Criminals are not only harvesting leaked data but are also using AI to refine their own methods, crafting phishing emails that are grammatically perfect and developing malware at a speed that traditional defenses struggle to match.
Ransomware and the Shift in Tactics
The global context of the report shows that ransomware remains the most dominant threat vector, with publicly reported incidents rising by 22 percent year-on-year. While North America bore the brunt of these attacks, the ripple effects are felt in emerging markets like Nigeria.
The nature of these attacks has evolved. Prominent ransomware groups such as Qilin, Clop, and Akira have moved beyond simple encryption strategies. They now favor a “double extortion” model. In these scenarios, attackers exfiltrate sensitive data before locking the system. If the victim refuses to pay the ransom for the decryption key, the attackers threaten to leak the stolen data publicly. This tactic effectively neutralizes the safety net of data backups, as the threat of reputational damage often forces organizations to the negotiating table.
Globally, the education sector was the hardest hit, facing over 4,600 weekly attacks. This is a concerning metric for Nigerian universities and schools, which often hold vast amounts of personal data on students and staff but operate with a fraction of the security budget available to private corporations. Similarly, the dramatic 57 percent surge in attacks on non-profits suggests that criminals are widening their nets to include “softer” targets that may lack enterprise-grade defenses.
Moving From Detection to Prevention
The sheer volume of hostility directed at Nigerian networks suggests that the current defensive posture is insufficient. Security experts responding to the report emphasize that relying on detection—waiting for an alarm to sound before reacting—is a failing strategy in an era where attacks occur in milliseconds.
To stem the tide, organizations must adopt a prevention-first approach. This requires a fundamental shift in how businesses handle their digital borders. Strict governance of AI tools is now mandatory, requiring companies to clearly define which platforms are safe and to implement technical blocks on unauthorized software.
Furthermore, the basics of cyber hygiene remain the most effective deterrents. A rigorous patch management schedule is essential to close the software vulnerabilities that ransomware groups exploit. Simultaneously, network segmentation can prevent an attacker who breaches one part of the system from moving laterally to access core data.
Ultimately, the human element remains the first line of defense. With phishing remaining a primary entry point, continuous training is necessary to help employees recognize the increasingly sophisticated lures used by attackers. As Nigeria continues to build its digital future, the November data serves as a stark warning: without a fortified cybersecurity foundation, the country’s economic growth will remain under constant siege.
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