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The Chief Executive Officer of Digital Encode Nigeria, Professor Adewale Peter Obadare, has said Artificial Intelligence is accelerating cybercrime by helping attackers identify weaknesses that already exist in digital systems.
Obadare made the remarks at a media briefing on “Cybersecurity, Digital Protection and Digital Trust in an AI Enabled Economy,” where he highlighted the growing need for organisations to adopt proactive measures to identify and fix vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
According to him, the growing adoption of AI by cybercriminals is changing the cybersecurity landscape by enabling attackers to discover weaknesses faster and lowering the technical barriers to sophisticated cyberattacks.
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What the Digital Encode CEO is saying
He said the development means organisations can no longer afford to wait for cyberattacks to occur before assessing the security of their digital platforms.
- “AI is not necessarily powerful because it creates vulnerabilities. What AI is doing is exposing weaknesses that already exist within systems,” he said.
He stressed that the appropriate response is to deploy AI defensively, enabling organisations to identify weaknesses and determine whether they could be exploited before malicious actors discover them.
Against this backdrop, Digital Encode Nigeria unveiled the Digital Encode Penetration Autonomous System, DEPAS, an AI-powered cybersecurity solution designed to automate penetration testing and help organisations identify, test and remediate vulnerabilities.
Obadare explained that DEPAS enables organisations to simulate authorised cyberattacks against their digital systems without relying entirely on lengthy manual penetration testing processes.
Secure coding becomes critical
Obadare also called for greater emphasis on secure coding, saying cybersecurity should be incorporated into digital products from the development stage rather than treated as an afterthought.
He noted that developers often prioritise functionality when building digital products without paying sufficient attention to security, potentially leaving weaknesses that attackers can later exploit.
- “Secure coding means that when you are building that digital product, you are building it with security in mind,” he said.
He urged organisations to combine secure coding with continuous vulnerability assessments and existing cybersecurity technologies to strengthen their digital platforms before deployment.
The cybersecurity expert said the need for proactive security is becoming more important as organisations across sectors increase their dependence on digital platforms and store growing volumes of financial, personal, academic and other sensitive information online.
He said DEPAS can be deployed across sectors including banking, fintech, education, insurance, aviation, healthcare and government.
Get up to speed
Nairametrics earlier reported that cyberattacks has increased by 56% in the past year, with more than 25% of organisations that experienced a malicious attack reporting that the incident was driven by artificial intelligence.
- According to IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report, that AI-driven attacks now cost businesses an average of $6.04 million per breach.
- IBM said attackers are increasingly using AI to automate attacks, identify vulnerabilities and operate at greater scale, reducing the time needed to exploit weaknesses and increasing the potential financial impact on businesses.
- The company also found that more than one in four organisations experienced a malicious AI-driven attack, representing a 56% increase from the previous year.
What you should know
The growing use of AI in cybercrime is also becoming a major concern across Africa, with artificial intelligence enabling 55% of reported cybercrimes on the continent, according to INTERPOL’s African Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2026.
The 40-page report also found that financial losses linked to cybercrime more than doubled, rising from $192 million in 2024 to $484 million in 2025. The findings are based on survey data from 36 African member countries.
INTERPOL said the trend reflects a broader shift in the continent’s cybercrime landscape, with criminal operations moving from isolated attacks to industrialised and borderless networks increasingly powered by AI tools.
