The Federal Ministry of Education has dismissed reports alleging that the Nigeria Education Management Information System (NEMIS) was compromised by hackers, maintaining that the platform remains secure and fully operational.
Key Highlights:
- The Federal Ministry of Education denied reports that the Nigeria Education Management Information System was hacked.
- Officials said the platform remains secure and fully operational.
- The issue was attributed to an SSL certificate configuration problem, not a cyberattack.
- The ministry said no data was accessed, altered, lost, or exposed.
- Technical teams resolved the issue and restored normal operations.
The ministry was responding to a publication that suggested the federal government’s education data platform may have suffered a cyberattack.
However, officials described the claim as inaccurate and misleading.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Folasade Boriowo, said there had been no breach of the system and that all data on the platform remained protected.
According to the statement, the Nigeria Education Management Information System was neither hacked nor subjected to any form of cyber intrusion.
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The ministry stressed that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information stored on the platform were never compromised.
It explained that the warning message recently encountered by some users was linked to an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate configuration issue at the hosting level rather than a security breach.
The ministry noted that the technical problem affected the platform’s secure certification process but did not lead to unauthorised access, data manipulation, loss of records or exposure of sensitive information.
Officials described the incident as a routine technical challenge and clarified that it had no connection to malicious cyber activity.
The statement further revealed that the ministry’s technical team worked closely with its hosting service provider to resolve the issue immediately after it was identified.
As a result, normal operations were restored and the platform remains accessible to authorised users.
The ministry also sought to educate the public on browser security alerts, noting that SSL certificate warnings do not automatically indicate a cyberattack or data breach.
It added that cybersecurity experts often recognise such alerts as common technical or configuration-related issues that can occur without any compromise of a system’s security architecture.
Reaffirming its commitment to protecting government digital infrastructure, the ministry said NEMIS continues to serve as a critical platform for the collection, management and analysis of education data across Nigeria.
According to the ministry, several safeguards have been implemented to ensure the reliability and security of the system, including continuous monitoring, infrastructure protection measures and regular security assessments.
The statement also highlighted the importance of the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure, describing it as a key federal government initiative aimed at strengthening data governance, integration and evidence-based planning within the education sector.
The ministry therefore urged media organisations and members of the public to verify information through official channels before publishing or sharing reports relating to government digital platforms, warning that unverified claims could create unnecessary anxiety and undermine public confidence in national digital systems.
