Nigeria Suffered More Cyber Attacks During Presidential More than Governorship Polls

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), has revealed that the country’s cyber security Centres, suffered more attacks during the Presidential and National Assembly polls more than the governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

He said the country suffered 3,834,244 attacks from hackers from Friday 17th March, 2023 to Monday 20th March, 2023.

The Senior Technical Assistant, Research and Development, to the Honourable Minister of Communications, and Digital Economy, Dr. Femi Adeluyi, in a statement on Wednesday disclosed that the monitoring Nigeria’s Cyberspace before, during, and after the 2023 gubernatorial, and State Assembly Elections, showed that hackers within and outside Nigeria tried to attack Nigeria’s cyber security Centres without success.

He stated 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.

According to him, it’s understandable as Nigeria being Africa’s largest democracy, the Presidential and National Assembly elections are bound to attract much attention of everyone, including cyber threat actors, than during the gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.

He said based on the Minister’s directives, the Committee provided close oversight on the activities of the cyber security Centres, from Friday 17th March, 2023 to Monday 20th March, 2023.

Femi Adeluyi said the Honourable Minister was confident that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify our cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in the protection of the country’s cyber space.

He explained that during the period, and as was previously reported, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and Internet Protocol Spoofing (IPS), SSH Login attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing.

He disclosed that a total of 3,834,244 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria.

Giving the daily breakdown of these attacks, Dr. Femi Adeluyi, explained that on Friday 17th March, 2023 about 1,046,896, attempts were made, and on Saturday 18th March, 2023, a total of 1,481,847, attempts were recorded.

He added that on Sunday 19th March, 2023, no less than 327,718, efforts were recorded adding that on Monday 20th March, 2023, about    977,783, attempts were carried out.

“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.

“This is neither surprising nor unexpected as, Nigeria being Africa’s largest democracy, the Presidential and National Assembly elections are bound to attract much attention of everyone, including cyber threat actors, than during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.

“Furthermore, the Honourable Minister is confident that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify our cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in this.” He said.

Dr. Femi Adeluyi said the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim, disclosed this in order 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.

“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 cyber security 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 cyber-attacks, as well as developing the ability to quickly recover from any damage that is done and developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analyzing the nation’s current cyber security capabilities, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed.” He said.

He also said the Committee was charged to providing professional advice to the Government on the effective utilisation of digital technologies in the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.

Dr. Femi Adeluyi stressed that the Honourable Minister reiterated that the attainments would not have been possible without the continued support of President Muhammadu Buhari, in particular, and the administration in general, towards ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy.

According to him, the digital economy sector has enjoyed Mr President’s unprecedented support adding that it was highly appreciated.