Cyberwise Foundation has taken its awareness and enlightenment campaign to public schools in Lagos State, focusing on the concept of cybersecurity and how students can protect themselves from cyber-attacks and cyberbullying.

The Cyber Awareness and Enlightenment Workshop, held on October 7, 2025, at Government Senior College Agege, had in attendance students from three schools in the Education District, including State Senior High School Oyewole, Girls High School, and the host Government Senior College, all located in the Agege area of Lagos.
The programme kicked off with an opening prayer by one of the students, Elemide Oluwatimileyin, of State Senior High School.

Mr Olukunmi Abbas Owoade, Co-founder and Cybersecurity Advocate, enlightened the students on the concept of Cybersecurity, laying more emphasis on the people element in the cybersecurity tripod of People, Process/Policies and Technologies.

He pointed out that while Processes and Technologies are important, they are more the priority of corporate and government entities. The People element defines how we use our devices and our level of knowledge on cyber threats and how to combat it as end users.

Mr Owoade went on to mention common online threats. He engaged the students interactively on the concept of social engineering.
He noted that threat actors like to prey on human vulnerabilities and try to hack humans instead of the actual systems, thereby using vulnerable individuals as the vector for delivering dangerous payload online.

He therefore advised that people should always be wary before clicking on shared links especially when they are unsolicited messages, either emails or text messages. It’s better to wait and ask more experienced adults before following online links.

Students were very active and a number of them spoke openly that they had been targets of social engineering from random people they met online and chat groups. The issue of requesting personal information was mentioned. Also, phishing attacks requesting them to click on links to win large sum of money, though tempting, should be avoided.

Some of the terms in cybersecurity, he said, are firewalls (which protect from unauthorised access and monitor networks), encryption (which ensures data transmitted over networks are secure), regular updates and access controls.

The founder urged his listeners not to share personal information online, such as NIN, BVN and bank card details and always verify before downloading items or clicking on unsolicited links especially the ones that offer free gifts like data bundle and unrealistic online giveaways.

He also spoke about Artificial Intelligence (AI), urging the children not to rely solely on it but to task their brains. They should, however, leverage it for learning new skills and working smartly.

Ayomide Olasupo, speaking on Cyberbullying Awareness, mentioned the types of cyberbullying which include exclusion, cyberstalking, harassment and trolling among others.

According to her, some of the causes of cyberbullying are insecurity, peer pressure, seeking attention and wrong sense of humour.

She urged young people not to engage with trolls, to promote kindness online, support victims and be responsible digital citizens.

Ms Olasupo also got the children to pledge to be kind and respectful online, to be upstanders rather than bystanders and to keep the internet a happy and safe place for everyone.

Mr Owoade called on the children to keep the conversation going by educating their peers and even the elderly on protecting themselves from cyber-attacks.

Representative of the Education District, Mrs Akin-Oyelade, thanked Cyberwise Foundation for bringing cyber awareness to the Education District 1 Agege and the students of the participating schools for their discipline and active participation in the workshop, adding that the workshop was an eye-opener even for her as an adult. She promised to carry the message to her colleagues, adding that she looks forward to more collaboration with CyberWise Foundation.