Nigeria’s cyberspace recorded 3.8 million attacks towards March 18 election – Minister

 ABUJA, Nigeria – The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has said that the Nigeria cyberspace recorded a total of 3,834,244 attacks before, during and after the governorship and house of assembly election.

Breakdown of the figure shows that 1, 046, 896 attacks were recorded on Friday 17th March, 2023, while 1,481,847 strikes were recorded on Saturday 18th March, 2023 during the election. He said that 327,718 assaults occurred on Sunday 19th March, 2023, while 977,783raids occurred on Monday 20th March.

“It is interesting to note that the activities of cyberthreat actors on the Nigerian cyberspace during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections are much lower than those during the Presidential and National Assembly elections”, he said, adding that this is neither surprising nor unexpected, Nigeria being Africa’s largest democracy.

Besides, he said 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 said implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in the reduction of incidents of cyber threats.

The Minister described the exercise as a follow up to what was done 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 in our efforts aimed at supporting the initiatives of securing the Nigerian cyberspace, the Honourable Minister directed the Ministerial Standing Committee on 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)”, Dr. Femi Adeluyi

Senior Technical Assistant (Research and Development) to the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy said in a statement.