Bank auditors tasked to enhance cybersecurity to curb attacks

Stakeholders have called on the Association of Chief Audit Executives of Banks in Nigeria (ACAEBIN) to take the lead in strengthening cybersecurity efforts to curb the rising wave of cyberattacks in the banking sector.

Hamid Joda, Managing Director/CEO of TAJBank, made this call while delivering the keynote address at the 61st quarterly general meeting of ACAEBIN, held in Lagos.

Joda, who was represented by Adekunle Awe, chairman of the Board Audit Committee of TAJBank Limited, noted that the role of bank auditors had evolved beyond detecting financial irregularities. Today, auditors are expected to play a critical role in cybersecurity and information technology within their organisations.

Speaking on the theme “Strengthening Cyber Resilience: The Auditor’s Role in Preventing Financial System Breaches,” Awe said auditors must now function as “technology risk assessors, cyber hygiene advocates, data governance examiners, business continuity watchdogs, and, more importantly, partners in digital trust.”

He added, “Today’s financial landscape is increasingly digital, borderless, and vulnerable. Cyber threats are no longer hypothetical, they are real, aggressive, and becoming more sophisticated. Whether it’s ransomware locking entire networks, phishing scams draining customers’ accounts, or insider breaches compromising sensitive customer data, the landscape has changed.

“Traditionally, the auditor’s toolkit was designed to detect financial anomalies and ensure compliance. Today, however, auditors must interrogate firewall logs, assess system penetration vulnerabilities, audit digital onboarding journeys, and understand cloud risk profiles.”

Awe emphasised that cyber resilience should no longer be seen as the sole responsibility of IT departments, but rather a critical component of enterprise-wide risk management. Internal audit functions, he said, must serve as the conscience of that structure.

In her remarks, Aina Amah, Chairperson of ACAEBIN, explained that the theme of the meeting was inspired by the increasing frequency and complexity of cyber threats facing the banking industry. She stressed the need for auditors to be more proactive in confronting these challenges.

“Recall that just a few months ago, precisely on March 12 and 13, 2025, we gathered over a hundred participants, including regulators, law enforcement agents, and other industry stakeholders, at our annual general meeting and fraud conference to discuss the need to strengthen institutional frameworks around fraud.

“That conference further underscored a hard truth: the rise in cyber threats and data breaches. As such, cyber resilience is not merely an IT issue, it is a governance, risk, and control issue”, she said.

Amah added that audit executives are uniquely positioned to ensure institutions not only meet compliance requirements but also embed resilience into the core of their operations.

She said the role of auditors must evolve from retrospective assessment to proactive advocacy, anticipating vulnerabilities, challenging weak control environments, and ensuring that organisations are not only compliant but genuinely secure.