The Federal Government on Tuesday said 12,988,978 cyber attacks were recorded and thwarted before and during the February, 25, 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
A statement issued by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami, on Tuesday, in Abuja, said the attacks originated from both within and outside Nigeria, adding 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.
The minister said 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 elections days,” 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 said.
