Over 3.8 million cyber attacks were recorded during the governorship and state assembly elections in Nigeria, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, has revealed.
Specifically, a total of 3,834,244 attacks were recorded, and they originated from both within and outside Nigeria. This was disclosed in a statement issued by the ministry’s senior technical assistant (Research and Development), Femi Adeluyi on Wednesday.
According to the minister, the daily breakdown of these attacks shows that 1,046,896 cases were recorded on Friday, March 17, 2023, 1,481,896 on Saturday, 18th March, 327,718 on Sunday, 19th March, and 977,783 on Monday, 20th March.
The hacking attempts included Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and Internet Protocol Spoofing (IPS) attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing.
The minister however clarified that the activities of cyberthreat actors on the Nigerian cyberspace during the governorship and State Assembly elections were much lower than those during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
“This is neither surprising nor unexpected as, Nigeria being Africa’s largest democracy, the Presidential and National Assembly elections are bound to attract much attention of everyone, including cyberthreat actors, than during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections,” he noted.
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In line with the ministry’s mandate as well as its efforts aimed at supporting the initiatives of securing Nigerian cyberspace, the minister had earlier directed the ministerial standing committee on an advisory role for the protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure to further enhance the cyberspace surveillance activities of the three cybersecurity centres of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB.
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The Minister said that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify Nigeria’s cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in this.
He however reiterated that these attainments would not have been possible without the continued support of President Muhammadu Buhari, in particular, and the administration in general, towards ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy.
Recall that a committee, inaugurated by the minister on the eve of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, was charged with the responsibilities of monitoring of Telecommunication Infrastructure for the successful conduct of the 2023 General Elections; developing and implementing plans to enhance the resilience of critical digital infrastructure against cyber threats; and designing procedures and using technologies to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks, as well as developing the ability to quickly recover from any damage that is done.
It was also charged with the responsibility of developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analysing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed; and providing professional advice to the Government on the effective utilisation of digital technologies in the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.
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