281,500 Nigerian accounts breached as cyberattacks hit 4,700 weekly

Fraudsters circumvented digital security controls in transactions worth more than N1bn across West Africa between January and June 2026, according to cybersecurity firm esentry.

According to The Whistler, the firm’s H1 2026 threat landscape report said three major incidents investigated by its Digital Forensics and Incident Response team went undetected in real time. Attackers exploited legitimate credentials, active sessions and trusted platforms rather than conventional software vulnerabilities.

The report said Nigerian organisations faced more than 4,700 cyberattacks weekly during the period, while 281,500 accounts were newly breached in the first quarter. Gbolabo Awelewa, esentry’s Chief Business Officer, said criminals were increasingly exploiting trust rather than vulnerabilities. The findings highlight weaknesses in authorisation, logging and monitoring systems.