2023 Elections: 3.8m Cyber Attacks Recorded During Guber Polls, Says Minister

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, has disclosed that Federal Government institutions under the ministry have collectively recorded a total of 3,834,244 attempts at cyber-attacks, originating from both within and outside Nigeria on daily basis before, during and after the 2023  governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections held on March 18, 2023.

A statement issued on Wednesday by Dr. Femi Adeluyi, Senior Technical Assistant (Research and Development) to the Minister, said the three Cybersecurity Centres of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB) recorded the attacks.

Daily breakdown of the attacks includes: 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, the statement added.

The Minister had earlier disclosed that before, during and after the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections that took place on Saturday, February 25, nearly 13 million attacks were averted by the government agencies on the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC).

As a follow-up to the February 25 elections and in line with the Ministry’s mandate as well as in its efforts aimed at supporting the initiatives of securing the Nigerian cyberspace, the 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 NITDA, NCC and GBB.

It may also be recalled that the Committee, inaugurated by the Minister on the eve of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, was charged with 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.

Others include; 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; 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 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. 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, the statement said.

“It is interesting to note that the activities of cyberthreat 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 more attention of everyone, including cyberthreat actors, than during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections,” the statement said.

Pantami also expressed confidence that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify our cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in this.