Nigerian organisations recorded the very best variety of cyber-attacks in Africa in January 2026, averaging 4,701 assaults per organisation per week.
That is based on the most recent World Risk Intelligence report by Test Level Analysis.
The determine represents a 12% yr on yr enhance and an increase from 4,622 weekly assaults recorded in December 2025, underscoring intensifying cyber stress on Africa’s largest financial system.
The report exhibits that Nigeria not solely leads the continent in assault quantity among the many 4 African international locations surveyed, but in addition considerably exceeds the continental common of two,864 assaults per organisation per week.
What the information is saying
Test Level Analysis knowledge exhibits that organisations globally confronted a median of two,090 cyber-attacks per week in January.
This marks a 3% enhance from December and a 17% yr on yr rise, highlighting sustained escalation in cyber threats worldwide.
- “Among the many 4 African international locations included within the January insights, Nigeria had the very best variety of assaults at 4,701 per organisation per week, a 12% YoY enhance. This was up from 4,622 in December 2025,” the report said.
Inside Africa, Angola adopted Nigeria with 4,512 assaults per organisation per week, although this represented a 7% yr on yr decline.
Kenya recorded 2,172 weekly assaults, down 41% yr on yr, whereas South African organisations confronted 2,145 weekly assaults, up 36% in comparison with the identical interval final yr.
- Total, Africa recorded a median of two,864 assaults per organisation weekly, a 6% yr on yr decline. Nonetheless, the drop masks important country-level disparities, with Nigeria and South Africa experiencing notable will increase.
Extra insights
Probably the most focused sectors throughout Africa have been Authorities, Monetary Companies, and Shopper Items and Companies, industries that handle delicate citizen knowledge, monetary transactions, and important provide chains.
Ian van Rensburg, Head of Safety Engineering for Africa at Test Level Software program Applied sciences, warned that the numbers mirror a shift in each scale and class.
- “January’s knowledge exhibits that cyber-attacks aren’t solely rising however changing into extra refined and opportunistic,” he stated.
He added that African organisations accelerating digital transformation should guarantee their cybersecurity frameworks hold tempo with know-how adoption.
- “Unchecked GenAI utilization is opening new blind spots for organisations. Prevention first, actual time safety powered by AI is the one efficient technique to cease assaults earlier than they trigger operational or monetary injury,” he stated.
GenAI adoption creates new vulnerabilities
The report flagged the fast uptake of Generative AI instruments as a rising safety danger. In keeping with Test Level, one in each 30 GenAI prompts submitted from company networks in January posed a big danger of exposing delicate knowledge.
- The publicity danger affected 93% of organisations utilizing GenAI instruments.
- Prompts regularly contained inner paperwork, private identifiers, customer info, and proprietary supply code.
- On common, organisations used 10 totally different GenAI instruments month-to-month, many working exterior formal governance constructions.
This fragmented utilization will increase the probability of unintended knowledge leaks, ransomware infiltration, and AI powered cyber-attacks, notably in markets like Nigeria the place digital adoption is accelerating throughout banking, fintech, telecoms and public providers.
Globally, the Schooling sector remained probably the most attacked trade, with establishments going through a median of 4,364 weekly assaults per organisation, up 12% yr on yr.
Authorities entities adopted with 2,759 weekly assaults, whereas Telecommunications ranked third with 2,647 assaults per week, reflecting rising threats to connectivity infrastructure and 5G ecosystems.
What you need to know
The rising cyber-attacks towards Nigerian organisations have been a serious concern, even to the federal government.
- In response to this, BusinessTimes reported that the federal government plans to roll out a brand new cybersecurity framework this yr to curb rising AI-driven cyberattacks on banks, companies and authorities companies.
- In keeping with the Director-Common of the Nationwide Info Know-how Improvement Company, Kashifu Inuwa, the cybersecurity framework, anticipated to be applied later this yr, would require organisations working in Nigeria to satisfy minimal cybersecurity spending thresholds.
- He stated many corporations at the moment underinvest in cybersecurity as a result of they assume they’re unlikely targets.
The framework will even introduce necessary timelines for reporting knowledge breaches, methods for sharing risk intelligence between the private and non-private sectors, and coordinated response protocols for main cyber incidents.
