NITDA, NCC, others advocate cyber resilience amid rising AI-generated assaults

The Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa, has referred to as for stronger cyber resilience, accountable deployment of Artificial intelligence (AI), and improved knowledge safety to safeguard Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

He acknowledged this Tuesday in his remarks on the second version of the International Cybersecurity Conference 2026 Abuja with the theme:
“Cyber Resilience in the Age of AI: Defending Minds, Networks, and Nations.”

He referred to as on establishments answerable for defending the nation’s our on-line world to stay vigilant, including that
cyber resilience includes the flexibility to recuperate after an assault.

“In the age of AI as we speak, it is rather tough to defend or assault with AI itself as a result of you must consider attacking and defending utilizing AI as a result of AI has many subtle instruments for the attackers in addition to for the folks.

“Organisations must defend themselves as properly, and all of it depends upon how we use it.

“This 12 months’s convention goes to take a look at it past simply defending infrastructure as a result of as we speak, cyber safety is past infrastructure.

“We need to look at how we can defend our minds because hackers focus more on hacking people than systems, and it is easier to hack people to get what you want than hacking the system itself,” Inuwa mentioned.

He mentioned NITDA has been working with the Office of the National Security Adviser and the National Assembly to evaluation the Cybercrimes Act and strengthen the coverage framework for cybersecurity.

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity, Sen. Shuiabu Salisu, referred to as for better collaboration amongst authorities establishments and stakeholders to deal with challenges affecting Nigeria’s digital ecosystem.

Salisu proposed a retreat involving related ministries, regulatory businesses, safety establishments and different stakeholders to establish shared priorities and develop coordinated methods.

He additionally advocated growing a nationwide cyber resilience index to evaluate organisations’ safety capabilities and supply a framework for measuring and enhancing their preparedness towards cyber threats.

Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Aminu Maida, represented by the Executive Commissioner (Technical Services) of the Commission, Engr. Sunday Abraham Oshadami, mentioned telecommunications infrastructure had turn into central to Nigeria’s financial system, supporting monetary transactions, public companies, enterprise operations and on a regular basis communications.

He warned that synthetic intelligence had reworked the velocity and scale of cyberattacks, with malicious techniques able to working far quicker than conventional human-led assaults.

According to him, the nation should put together for AI-powered phishing, automated credential assaults, deepfakes designed to bypass authentication measures and malware able to altering its behaviour to evade detection.

The NCC consultant mentioned cyber resilience required the capability to anticipate threats, face up to assaults, recuperate from disruptions and adapt to altering safety circumstances with out crippling the nation’s financial actions.

He careworn that the fee’s accountability prolonged past regulating telecommunications companies to defending shoppers and guaranteeing the reliability and safety of communication networks.

He defined that the NCC had established a Computer Security Incident Response Team for the communications sector to watch rising threats, coordinate intelligence sharing and facilitate incident reporting. He additionally mentioned the fee’s cybersecurity resilience framework offered a typical safety baseline for licensed telecommunications operators, with coordination involving related nationwide cybersecurity our bodies.

The consultant recognized three main areas requiring consideration: defending folks, securing networks and strengthening nationwide cooperation. He urged telecommunications operators to undertake zero-trust safety structure, which requires steady verification fairly than mechanically trusting customers or gadgets, whereas guaranteeing that AI-powered community techniques had been usually examined for vulnerabilities.

He added that cybersecurity consciousness should turn into a part of organisational tradition and public life, enabling people to recognise suspicious communications and manipulation makes an attempt.

He additionally referred to as for nearer cooperation amongst regulators, telecommunications operators, monetary establishments, safety businesses and worldwide companions, warning that an assault on one crucial sector might have penalties for a number of others.