Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami has revealed that a total of 3,834,244 cyberattacks were recorded in the country before, during, and after the 2023 Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.
A statement issued on Wednesday by Dr. Femi Adeluyi, Senior Technical Assistant on Research and Development to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, explained that such cyberattacks originated from both within and outside the country.
The statement entitled, ‘Monitoring Nigeria’s Cyberspace Before, During and After the 2023 Gubernatorial and State Assembly Elections,’ which was obtained by Africa Today News, New York explained that ‘during this period and as previously reported, 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 are: Friday 17th March, 2023: 1,046,896; Saturday 18th March, 2023: 1,481,847; Sunday 19th March, 2023: 327,718, and Monday 20th March, 2023: 977,783’.
According to the statement, ‘The Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), wishes to bring to the attention of the digital economy stakeholders and the general public the ministry’s activities before, during, and after the 2023 Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.
Read Also: How FG Recorded 13m Cyberattacks During Elections – Pantami
‘It may be recalled that on the 14th March, 2023, the Office of the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy released a press 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 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).
‘It may also be recalled that the committee, inaugurated by the Honourable Minister on the eve of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, was charged with the following responsibilities, among others:
‘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 cyberattacks, as well as developing the ability to quickly recover from any damage that is done.
‘Developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analysing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed; and providing professional advice to the government on the effective utilisation of digital technologies in the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
‘Based on Honourable Minister’s directives, the committee provided close oversight on the activities of the cybersecurity centres, from Friday 17th March, 2023 to Monday 20th March, 2023.
It is interesting to note that the activities of cyber threat actors on the Nigerian cyberspace during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections are much lower than those during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.