Data Breaches: Compliance Obligations Under The Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023

Introduction

Data breaches are now a regular occurrence in the modern data-driven and digital global economy that the world has now become. A number of organisations have suffered data breaches in the course of their operations with differing degrees of seriousness. These breaches have resulted in the personal information under the custody of these organisations becoming compromised and unduly exposed to third parties with malicious motives, thereby creating potential risks for the affected individuals. Nigeria, a country with an estimated population of over 200 million people making it a fertile ground for data breaches, has also experienced cyber incidences that have affected both government institutions and corporate entities. Such cyber-attacks have led to the unauthorised exposure of personal data under the control of such institutions or corporate organisations. Surfshark, a cybersecurity firm, reported that data breach incidences in Nigeria increased by 64% in