ICT Hub: How GBB Blocked 200 Attacks Against INEC Servers, Saved N4.69bn

The Galaxy Backbone(GBB) Limited has made significant impact in the 2023 general elections when the agency deployed its vast proficiency and capabilities to forestall over 200 cyber attacks against the servers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)  thereby protecting the Commission from desperate hackers.

This was disclosed by the Managing Director/CEO of GBB, Prof Muhammad Bello Abubakar in his presentation during the Ministerial Training for Board Members and Management of Galaxy Backbone with the theme

“Positioning the GBB team for Effective Management and Leadership in the 4th Industrial Revolution,” which held in Abuja recently.

Abubakar said” we were able to block over 200 attacks on servers  on election day and subsequently blocked over 1.2 million attacks.” He added that the agency has also recorded immense achievements in terms of raising the revenue profile of the government in line with their mandate as stipulated by the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS 2020-2025).

According to the GBB boss, the agency has evolved to positive levels and emerged from debts to saving about N4.69 billion  between 2020 and 2022 through optimization of its technical services.

GBB is a government-owned integrated ICT services and solutions provider established to drive digital inclusion in the public sector, underserved areas and other stake-holder communities.Its  mandate  includes: To be the provider of shared ICT infrastructure, applications and services to all Federal Government Ministries Departments and Agencies( FG MDAs) and institutions;  To build and operate a single nation-wide IP broadband network to provide network services to all FG MDAs and institutions.

The GBB is also saddled with the responsibility to host Government data and deploy transversal applications across Government. The GBB Strategy and six objectives pillars include; improvement & visibility of service,  migration to cloud services, provisioning of backup & disaster recovery site(s), provisioning of contact centre investment on security & management development of new SOC.

The GBB also has provided new certifications (e.g. ISO 9001, 22301) & maintenance of previous certifications, establishment of security command centre, investment on people trainings, health insurance promotions &  guidelines framework, welfare, housing, transport/commuting to place of work and infrastructural development.

It has also embarked on NICTIB 2 Project, LAN intervention projects, Northeast Regional Office at Gombe, upgrade of Southwest Regional Office & Data Centre in Lagos, commissioning of National Shared Service Centre (Now Muhammadu Buhari Galaxy Backbone Headquarters) in Abuja, and commissioning of the Tier IV National Data Centre and Galaxy Northwest Regional Office in Kano.

The   Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ibrahim Pantami, who lauded the GBB for saving such huge amount, amid other achievements, called for more efforts to achieve the mandate of the agency.

He said ” I initiated a  memo to the Federal Executive Council for special intervention for Galaxy  Backbone and it’s the first of its kind. You have saved 4.69 billion naira and   I strongly agree  that

Galaxy has not just played a significant role but it plays it  when it comes  to making our virtual Federal Executive Council meeting very successful.

” I am  glad with what I have seen with regards  to the achievements of Galaxy Backbone  limited , the efforts of the Board and  Management are  highly commendable and  I urge the Management and Board to work harder to maintain our performance.

“Training is key when it comes to improving our performance   and it is key when it comes to our self-evaluation, self-judgment, self-assessment and self criticism. It is good to find time to review what we have been doing, discover our strength  and also our weaknesses and where to improve.

“Most importantly, my obversatiion on GBB is the issue of customer centrality and customer satisfaction. I am glad that President Buhari has approved the establishment of a new directorate to take care of the issue of customer centricity , secondly we need to think out of the box on how to identify new areas  for government revenue generation .

“Now, we are in the 4th Industrial revolution ,we need to be proactive in our thinking, let us  not just maintain the same  process every day when it comes to revenue generation. We need to find many new ways to genetate revenue.”

The GBB has effectively evolved  towards achieving the madate of the organization within the context of the NDEPS( 2020-2025) anchored on research and digital innovation skills.

GBB six pillars is helping to propel its drive to achieve the  NDEPS and the  National Broadband Policy, thereby  promoting customer centrality to deliver services to the best  of its ability as well as improve capability and capacity of staff and enhance partnership with ICT service providers.