Nigeria recorded 3.8 million Cyber attacks during gubernatorial, state assembly elections – Minister

The Nigerian government announced Wednesday that it recorded a total of 3.8 million (3,834,244) cyber attacks, originating from both within and outside Nigeria during the gubernatorial and state assembly elections.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, disclosed this in a statement issued by his senior technical assistant (Research and Development), Femi Adeluyi.

The statement said on 14 March, the office of the minister released a statement regarding the activities of the ministry and its parastatals before, during and after the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

“As a follow-up to that and in line with the ministry’s mandate as well as its efforts aimed at supporting the initiatives of securing Nigerian cyberspace, the minister 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),” it said.

It added that the committee, inaugurated by the minister on the eve of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, was charged with the responsibility 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, 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.

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It was also charged with the responsibility of developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analyzing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, 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 statement noted that based on the minister’s directives, the committee provided close oversight on the activities of the cybersecurity centres.

It said during this period, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including 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.

“A total of 3,834,244 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria.

“Daily breakdown of these attacks is 17 March 2023: 1,046,896, 18th March 2023: 1,481,847, 19th March 2023: 327,718 and 20th March 2023: 977,783,” Mr Pantami said.

“It is interesting to note that the activities of cyber threat actors in Nigerian cyberspace during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections are 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 more attention of everyone, including cyber threat actors, than during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.”

The minister noted that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in this.

“These attainments would not have been possible without the continued support of President Muhammadu Buhari, and the administration in general, towards ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy.

“The digital economy sector has enjoyed Mr President’s unprecedented support and it is highly appreciated,” he said.