Education Ministry Clears Air on NEMIS Hack Claims, Blames Technical Glitch for Alert

(Minister of Education Morufu Alausa. Photo by News Telegraph)

The Federal Ministry of Education has denied reports that the Nigeria Education Management Information System (NEMIS) was hacked, describing the claims 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 responding to an earlier report suggesting the education data platform may have been compromised, stating categorically that the NEMIS platform was at no point hacked, breached, or subjected to any cyberattack, and that the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of data on the platform remain fully intact.

According to the ministry, the temporary warning message seen by some users stemmed from an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate configuration issue at the hosting level, rather than any security breach.

It explained that the issue affected the platform’s secure access certification but did not result in unauthorised access, data loss, alteration of records, or exposure of sensitive information, adding that its technical team worked promptly with the hosting service provider to resolve the matter.

The ministry described the incident as purely technical, stressing that it did not involve any unauthorised access, data loss, data alteration, or exposure of sensitive information.

It said that once the issue was identified, its technical team, working alongside the hosting provider, swiftly resolved it and restored normal operations, with the platform now fully functional, secure, and accessible to authorised users.

The ministry also moved to clarify public misunderstanding around browser security warnings, noting that SSL certificate alerts do not, on their own, constitute evidence of a cyberattack or data breach.

It added that expert opinion cited in the original report had similarly acknowledged that such alerts can result from routine technical or configuration issues rather than malicious activity.

The ministry stressed that NEMIS remains a vital digital platform supporting the collection, management, and utilisation of education data nationwide, and said it continues to implement robust security measures, regular system monitoring, infrastructure safeguards, and periodic security assessments to protect the platform’s reliability.

The statement further highlighted the significance of the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure, describing it as the Federal Government’s flagship framework for strengthening education data governance, integration, accessibility, and evidence-based planning across the sector.