3.8 Million Cyber-Attacks Thwarted During Guber Polls - Pantami

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has disclosed that over 3.8 million cyber-attacks were thwarted during the governorship and state assembly elections.

He said the attack originated from both within and outside Nigeria. The Minister disclosed this In a statement released by Dr. Femi Adeluyi, Senior Special Assistant on Technical Matters.

Pantami said the attacks were prevented through the use of cyberspace infrastructure established by the government to monitor and regulate activities within the nation's cyberspace, prior to, during, and after the elections.

Pantami also mentioned that the Federal Government's standing committee responsible for securing the nation's cyberspace, in conjunction with other cyber security agencies, ensured the consolidation of their efforts towards ensuring Nigeria's cyberspace was safe and secure.

The Minister also emphasized the government's unwavering commitment to securing the country's cyberspace and urged the general public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities in the digital space to relevant authorities.

The statement partly reads,” 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; Monday 20th March 2023: 977,783.

“It is interesting to note that the activities of cyber threat actors on Nigerian cyberspace during the governorship and State Assembly elections are much lower than those during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.”

Pantami further appreciated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure for the feat, asserting that Nigeria would continue to appreciate the cyberspace surveillance activities of the three cybersecurity Centres of the National Information Technology Development Agency, Nigerian Communications Commission and Galaxy Backbone Limited.

Explaining the disparities in the attacks compared to previous elections, Pantami acknowledged that “Nigeria being Africa’s largest democracy, the Presidential and National Assembly elections are bound to attract much attention of everyone, including cyber threat actors, then during the governorship and State Assembly elections.”