Summary: In this paper, the problem of adaptive security control for a class of nonlinear multi‐agent systems (MASs) under deception attacks is studied. This scheme aims to design a new adaptive fuzzy control scheme for each subsystem of MASs to reduce the impact of network attacks (from sensor to controller) on state signals, and proposes Nussbaum function to deal with unknown time‐varying control directions. In addition, for multi‐agent systems, a finite‐time convergent security control scheme is designed to ensure the convergence of tracking error and the boundedness of signals in the closed‐loop system. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a simulation example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]