3.8 million cyber attacks recorded during state elections – Pantami

From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja

A staggering 3,834,244 cyberattacks were detected during Nigeria’s governorship and State Assembly elections, according to a statement by Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.

The attacks reportedly originated from both within and outside the nation, with 1,046,896 attacks recorded on Friday, 1,481,847 on Saturday – the day of the elections – and 1,481,847 on Sunday. Additionally, 977,783 attacks were recorded on Monday.

The Minister’s Senior Technical Assistant, Dr Femi Adeluyi, signed the statement, which noted that the Minister had directed the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure to enhance the surveillance activities of the three cybersecurity centres of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Nigerian Communications Commission, and Galaxy Backbone Limited.

The Committee was tasked with monitoring telecommunication infrastructure, enhancing the resilience of critical digital infrastructure against cyber threats, designing procedures to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks, and developing the ability to recover quickly from any damage.

Despite the large number of attacks, the minister pointed out that the number was lower during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections than during the Presidential and National Assembly elections. He attributed this to the fact that the latter attracts much more attention from cyber threat actors due to Nigeria’s status as Africa’s largest democracy.