  As internet related challenges increase such as cyber-attacks, the need for
safe practises among users to maintain computer system's health and online
security have become imperative, and this is known as cyber-hygiene. Poor
cyber-hygiene among internet users is a very critical issue undermining the
general acceptance and adoption of internet technology. It has become a global
issue and concern in this digital era when virtually all business transactions,
learning, communication and many other activities are performed online. Virus
attack, poor authentication technique, improper file backups and the use of
different social engineering approaches by cyber-attackers to deceive internet
users into divulging their confidential information with the intention to
attack them have serious negative implications on the industries and
organisations, including educational institutions. Moreover, risks associated
with these ugly phenomena are likely to be more in developing countries such as
Nigeria. Thus, authors of this paper undertook an online pilot study among
students and employees of University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a total of 145
responses were received and used for the study. The survey seeks to find out
the effect of age and level of education on the cyber hygiene knowledge and
behaviour of the respondents, and in addition, the type of devices used and
activities they engage in while on the internet. Our findings show wide
adoption of internet in institution of higher learning, whereas, significant
number of the internet users do not have good cyber hygiene knowledge and
behaviour. Hence, our findings can instigate an organised training for students
and employees of higher institutions in Nigeria.
