Zenith Bank customers in Nigeria have been advised to review their accounts without delay and verify that their funds remain secure after the lender disclosed a data breach.
Customers urged to check account activity
Dr Uju Ogunbunka, president of the Bank Consumers Association of Nigeria, issued the recommendation in an interview on Wednesday. The warning followed Zenith Bank’s confirmation in a notice that hackers had obtained unauthorised access to customer information.
Ogunbunka said account holders should treat the incident seriously and carry out their own checks rather than assume their accounts were unaffected. He recommended that customers:
- Sign in to the bank’s digital platform and review recent activity.
- Contact their account officers for an update on the situation.
- Compare their current balances with the point at which they last checked their accounts.
- Visit a branch and request confirmation of their account balances if necessary.
- Look for unexplained changes, interruptions, restrictions or other encumbrances on their accounts.
Call for stronger banking defences
Ogunbunka said customers needed to establish whether their deposits were still intact and determine if any part of the bank’s system linked to their accounts had been compromised. He also called on Nigerian banks to reinforce their technology and cybersecurity controls to guard against future cyberattacks and avoid a repeat of the incident.
