Countering AI-driven cybercrime: Digital Encode launches DEPAS AI, Nigeria’s first autonomous penetration testing platform - ITREALMS

Nigeria’s premier cybersecurity professional services firm, Digital Encode, has announced the launch of DEPAS AI (Digital Encode Penetration Autonomous System), the nation's first fully autonomous enterprise penetration testing platform, reports ITREALMS.

The platform's release comes at a critical time. According to IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report, AI-enabled breaches now account for 25% of all malicious incidents, marking a 56% year-over-year increase. The average cost of these AI-driven breaches has escalated to US$6.04 million, significantly exceeding the global average breach cost of US$4.99 million.

From a regional perspective, attack activity remains heavily concentrated in North America at 29%, Asia-Pacific at 27%, and Europe at 25%. The Middle East & Africa region accounts for 10% of overall incidents, emphasizing the borderless nature of AI-enabled threats.

DEPAS AI was built to shift organizations from periodic, manual security assessments toward continuous, autonomous cyber resilience.

The platform deploys a team of specialized AI security agents that operate concurrently across an enterprise's entire attack surface. An agentic coordinator orchestrates the operation, maintaining full context of the target system, analyzing findings in real time, and spawning follow-up agents for thorough coverage.

To eliminate false positives, every vulnerability identified is independently validated by a dedicated verification agent. Furthermore, DEPAS AI features a proprietary chain-builder that maps individual vulnerabilities into high-impact attack chains, illustrating how adversaries can exploit minor flaws in sequence to compromise systems.

The platform provides continuous coverage across enterprise-bespoke software, web applications, APIs, mobile applications, backend systems, cloud environments, and network infrastructure.

Speaking on the strategic intent behind the platform, Prof. Adewale Obadare, Chief Visionary Officer at Digital Encode, highlighted the necessity of upgrading defensive speeds to match rapid adversary automation.


“AI is now being weaponized by attackers to move faster than human teams can respond. DEPAS AI combines Artificial Intelligence with Human Intelligence to give organizations the same speed and scale in defense. We are reimagining penetration testing for the AI era.” — Prof. Adewale Obadare, Chief Visionary Officer, Digital Encode

Through 24/7 autonomous scanning, attack chain mapping, and executive-ready remediation reporting mapped to global compliance standards, Digital Encode aims to empower financial institutions, government bodies, and enterprise organizations in Nigeria and internationally to detect, prioritize, and neutralize cyber risks before they are exploited.