By Michael Olatunji
The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isah Pantami has vowed to protect the Nigerian cyberspace from attacks during the forthcoming gubernatorial election.
Pantami said from the 24th of February 2023 to date, a total of 12,988,978 attempts have been made on government websites and portals.
This was disclosed on Tuesday in a statement signed by Uwa Sulaiman, the spokesperson to the Communication Minister which was obtained by THE WHISTLER.
According to the Ministry, in the run-up to the 2023 general elections, intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace.
The Ministry said threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily, adding that it rose to 6,997,277 on presidential election day.
But the Ministry said all the attacks were blocked by relevant agencies under its supervision.
Pantami said he is working to ensure a “safe and secure cyberspace for Nigerians before, during, and after the 2023 presidential elections.”
The minister said to ensure a safe and secure cyberspace, he directed all the parastatals to enhance their monitoring of the networks and traffic for potential attacks between 24th February 2023 to 27th February 2023
The directive, according to Pantami has been extended to the March 18th gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections.
Between 2020 to 2022, the ministry had established cybersecurity centers; the National Information Technology (NITDA)’s Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team (CERRT), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), and Galaxy Backbone (GBB)’s Security Operations Centre (SOC).
The ministry 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.
“It is worth noting that in the run-up to the 2023 general elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace. Generally, threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily. However, this skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on Presidential Election Day.
“A total of 12,988,978 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria. It is worth noting that the Centers successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.
“The 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 commends all stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem for their support that resulted into this this unprecedented success.”
