Federal Government Dismisses Reports of Cyberattack on National Education Data Platform

The Federal Ministry of Education has strongly denied viral media reports alleging that the Nigeria Education Management Information System (NEMIS) was hit by a successful cyberattack, reassuring the public that the nation's flagship educational database remains uncompromised and fully secure.

The official rebuttal follows a wave of anxieties triggered by news publications suggesting that a major security breach had exposed sensitive national educational records. In a public statement issued on Tuesday, the Ministry's Director of Press and Public Relations, Mrs. Folasade Boriowo, categorically dismissed the claims as "inaccurate and misleading." Boriowo emphasized that at no point was the NEMIS platform hacked, nor was there any unauthorized access, loss, manipulation, or exposure of sensitive citizen data.

According to technical administrators, the error was entirely a server-side Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate configuration anomaly at the hosting provider level. This specific certificate validates secure connections but does not grant external entry into core data repositories when it experiences a lapse.

The Ministry noted that its dedicated IT infrastructure team intervened immediately alongside the hosting service provider to fix the configuration glitch and restore seamless operations. Urging media organizations and the public to disregard the unfounded panic, the government reiterated its strict compliance with robust data governance frameworks through the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure (NEDI) to safeguard public records.