* Says threats to public websites, portals averaged around 1.55 million daily
*Skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on election day
*Says attacks originated from both within and outside Nigeria
The Federal Government has disclosed that it has recorded 12,988,978 cyber attacks during the Feb. 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections,in which Presidential candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, defeated two of his closest rivals, Abubakar Atiku of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami stated this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, which was made available to New National Star.
According to Pantami, the attacks originated from both within and outside Nigeria, adding that the threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1.55 million daily.
He said the attacks skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on the Presidential and National Assembly elections day, adding that in the run-up to the 2023 general elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigerian cyberspace.
“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 election day,”Pantami said.
He said a committee set up by his ministry to curtail the activities of cyber criminals during the elections started work on Feb. 24 and ended work on Feb. 28,2023.
Pantami said: “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,” he added.
It will be recalled that Pantami had earlier inaugurated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure.