The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy said on Wednesday that a series of hacking attempts were recorded during the governorship and state houses of assembly election last weekend.
The ministry said a total of 3,834,244 attacks were made on the 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 ministry disclosed that the attacks originated from both within and outside Nigeria.
The ministry in breaking down the attacks on Wednesday in a statement revealed that on Friday 17th March, 2023, 1,046,896 attacks were recorded.
On the day of the election – Saturday 18th March – 1,481, 847 attacks occured, while on Sunday 19th, 327,718 attacks were made.
The statement further stated that on Monday 20th, 977,783 attacks were also recorded.
“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 attention of everyone, including cyberthreat actors, than during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections,” the statement noted.
The statement signed by Dr. Femi Adeluyi, Senior Technical Assistant (Research and Development) to the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, said the Minister, Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim, is confident that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify the cyber defence mechanisms helped to avert damage from the attacks.
“The Honourable Minister reiterates that these 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.
“The digital economy sector has enjoyed Mr President’s unprecedented support and it is highly appreciated.”
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