The Federal Ministry of Education has denied reports that the Nigeria Education Management Information System was hacked, describing the report as “inaccurate and misleading.” In a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by the Director of Press and Public Relations, Folasade Boriowo, the ministry insisted that the platform remains secure and that no cyberattack occurred.
The ministry was reacting to a report titled “Suspected Cyberattack Hits FG’s Education Data Platform”, which suggested that the education data platform may have been compromised. “The Ministry wishes to categorically state that the report is inaccurate and misleading.
At no time was the NEMIS platform hacked, breached, or subjected to any cyberattack. The integrity, confidentiality, and availability of data on the platform remain fully intact,” the statement read. According to the statement, the temporary warning message seen by some users was caused by an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate configuration issue at the hosting level, rather than any security breach.
The issue affected the platform’s secure access certification but did not result in unauthorised access, loss of data, alteration of records, or exposure of sensitive information, the ministry explained. It added that its technical team worked with the hosting service provider to address the problem immediately after it was detected.
“The incident was purely technical in nature and did not involve any unauthorised access to the system, data loss, data alteration, or exposure of sensitive information,” the ministry said. “Upon identification of the issue, the Ministry’s technical team, working in collaboration with the hosting service provider, promptly resolved the matter and restored normal service operations.
The platform remains fully functional, secure, and accessible to all authorised users.” The ministry also clarified the nature of browser security warnings, noting that SSL certificate alerts should not be automatically interpreted as evidence of a cyberattack.