How Nigerian Companies Experienced Huge Data Breach in Q1 2023

More than 200 Nigerian organisations straddling financial companies including the major banks; ICT and telecom firms as well as publicly owned entities recorded alarming levels of data breach in the first quarter of 2023.

This is to go findings by Data Protection Compliance Organizations (DPCOs), and industry insights including detailed study of  investigative endeavours by the privacy Ombudsman: Nigeria Data Protection Bureau (NDPB).

Going by claims by the DPCOs and industry insights, while some of the risk levels for data breach could be regarded as Low Risk meaning the infraction is unlikely to have ‘an impact on individuals, or the impact is likely to be minimal,’ breaches by many of the affected organisations could be regarded as Medium Risk implying that the ‘breach may have an impact on individuals, but the impact is unlikely to be substantial.’

However, majority of the infractions could be regarded as High Risk to mean that the breaches have a considerable impact on affected individuals and undermine the provision of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR) substantially.