FG records 12.98m cyberattacks during Presidential, NASS elections

The Federal Government said it has recorded 12,988,978 cyber attacks during the Feb. 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections. The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja. Pantami said the attacks originated from both within and outside Nigeria, adding the threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1.55 million daily. He said the attacks skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on the Presidential and National Assembly elections day.The minister said in the run-up to the 2023 general elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace.

“It is worth noting that in the run-up to the 2023 general elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace. Generally, threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily. However, they skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on the elections days,”Pantami said. He said a committee set up by his ministry to curtail the activities of cyber criminals during the elections started work on Feb. 24 and ended work on Feb. 28,2023. Pantami said: “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.

“It is worth noting that the centres successfully blocked these attacks and escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action,” he said. NAN recalls that on Feb. 24, 2023, the minister inaugurated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure. (NAN)