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About 12,988,978 cyber attacks were documented both within and outside the country during the general elections according to Isa Pantami, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy. In addition, Pantami said that threat to information showed a sharp rise in cyberattacks on Nigerian cyberspace in the days leading up to the 2023 general elections, with 1,550,000 threats per day on average being made against websites and portals. He said this increased dramatically to 6,997,277 on election day.
However, he pointed out that the attacks had been successfully checkmated and escalated to the appropriate authorities for the right course of action. The minister made these known in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Uwa Sulaiman on Tuesday. “On February 24, 2023, the Minister inaugurated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure. The Committee, chaired by the Board Chairman of NCC and with the CEOs of NCC, NITDA and GBB as members, was charged with the following responsibilities, among others: Monitoring of Telecommunication Infrastructure for the successful conduct of credible, free, fair, and transparent 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 recover from any damage that is done quickly.
Others are: developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analyzing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed; and providing professional advice to the Government on the effective utilization of digital technologies in the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.
“The Committee’s activity started on 24th February 2023 and ended on 28th February 2023. During this period, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and IPS attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing. A total of 12,988,978 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria. It is worth noting that the Centers successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.
“The parastatals, under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, have played a crucial role in providing the enabling environment for the successful conduct of a credible, free, fair, and transparent election. The Minister commends all stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem for their support that resulted into this this unprecedented success.
“More importantly, the Minister notes that these attainments are as a result of the commitment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, towards ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy. The digital economy sector has enjoyed continued support of the President and it is highly appreciated. He also hopes that lessons learned during the process will be put to effective use in subsequent elections.” The statement read in parts.
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