FG moves to review cybercrime law over AI threats

The Federal Government is preparing to review Nigeria’s cybercrime legislation to address emerging threats from artificial intelligence, including online fraud, digital surveillance and attacks on critical infrastructure.

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, disclosed this in a message delivered on his behalf by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Rotimi Oyedepo, at the second International Cybersecurity Conference in Abuja on Tuesday.

“The Federal Ministry of Justice has advanced work on a draft executive bill to strengthen our legal framework,” he said.

The conference, organised by the National Information Technology Development Agency and the Nigerian Communications Commission, was themed “Cyber Resilience in the Age of AI: Defending Minds, Networks and Nations”.

Fagbemi said the proposed bill would update the legal framework to reflect technological developments, improve the preservation and exchange of electronic evidence, and strengthen cooperation among law enforcement agencies.

He said the initiative built on Nigeria’s accession to the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, its engagement with the United Nations Convention against Cybercrime and consultations on the existing Cybercrimes Act.

According to him, cybercrime has expanded beyond conventional internet fraud to include cryptocurrency-related offences, sextortion, child exploitation and AI-assisted deception.

“Our objective is clear: laws that respond to emerging technologies, facilitate the preservation and exchange of electronic evidence, support effective investigation and prosecution, and uphold human rights and the rule of law,” he stated.

The minister cautioned that stronger enforcement powers must not come at the expense of fundamental freedoms.

“Security must protect liberty, not become an excuse to undermine it,” he added.

Also speaking, NITDA Director-General Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi said the agency was working with the Office of the National Security Adviser and the National Assembly to review the Cybercrimes Act.

“We’ve been working with the Office of the National Security Adviser, the National Assembly to review the Cybercrime Act and repeal it to get more legislative power to do more with what we have,” he said.

Abdullahi said the government was also considering a national cybersecurity architecture that would prescribe minimum protection standards for organisations.

He warned that criminals were increasingly exploiting human vulnerabilities through AI-generated voices, videos and images rather than targeting computer systems directly.

“Today hackers focus more on hacking people than systems, because it is easier to hack people to get what you want than hacking the system itself,” he said.

The NITDA chief identified digital sovereignty as another priority, citing the agency’s national sovereign cloud regulatory instrument covering data, infrastructure, cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

In his keynote address, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, Aminu Maida, warned that AI-powered cyberattacks could disrupt telecommunications, financial services and government operations.

Represented by the commission’s Executive Commissioner for Technical Services, Sunday Oshadami, Maida said criminals were deploying automated attacks, deepfakes and increasingly sophisticated malware.

“We are no longer defending against human hackers operating at human speed; we are confronting machine learning systems operating at microsecond computational speed,” he said.

He cited reported cyberattacks on supermarket refrigeration systems in France and spyware targeting at least 45 devices belonging to journalists and media personnel in the Middle East.

Maida said the NCC had established a Computer Security Incident Response Team and introduced a cyber resilience framework prescribing security standards for licensed telecommunications operators.

He urged operators to adopt zero-trust security systems and continuously test AI models for vulnerabilities, warning that attacks on telecommunications infrastructure could affect national security and economic activity.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity, Shuaib Salisu, proposed a national cybersecurity resilience index to assess organisations’ preparedness.

Salisu also called for a joint retreat involving technology regulators, security agencies and lawmakers to coordinate cybersecurity policies.

He urged African governments to ease restrictions on cross-border business activities, arguing that regional digital integration required greater mobility.

Similarly, the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on ICT and Cybersecurity, Stanley Adedeji Olajide, warned that technological developments were making existing cybersecurity legislation increasingly inadequate.

Olajide called for adaptable laws and stronger international cooperation, warning that cyberattacks could threaten essential services, including food supply systems.