Nigeria cyberspace recorded 12.9 million attacks in 2 days, 6.9 million on presidential election day – Minister

 

ABUJA, Nigeria – Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has revealed that the Nigerian cyberspace  recorded about 12.9 million security attacks in two days  before and during the February 25,  2023 Presidential and National Assembly election.

“Generally, threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily”, he said but that the attacks skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on Presidential Election Day.

The Minister who revealed this information in a statement signed by his spokesman, Uwa Sulaiman said the attacks were uncovered by  the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure.

The minister said 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 Centres successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action”, he said.

The statement pointed out that that in the run-up to the 2023 General Elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace.

The statement noted that 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 commended all stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem for their support that resulted into this this unprecedented success.

More importantly, the Honourable Minister noted that these attainments are as a result of the commitment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR towards ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy.

The minister said 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.