FG: We recorded 12.98m cyberattacks during presidential, NASS elections

The Federal Government says a total of 12,988,978 cyberattacks were recorded during the February 25, 2023, presidential and National Assembly elections.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, disclosed this via a statement issued on Tuesday.

Pantami stated that the attacks originated from both within and outside Nigeria, adding that threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily.

He said the attacks skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on the presidential and National Assembly elections day.

The minister said in the run-up to the 2023 general election, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace.

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“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, they skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on the elections days,” Pantami said.

He noted that a committee set up by his ministry to curtail the activities of cyber criminals during the elections started work on February 24 and ended work on February 28, 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 the centers successfully blocked these attacks and escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action,” the minister stated.

The Star