Almost 4 Million Cyberattacks Recorded Against Nigeria During 2023 Governorship, State Assembly Elections —Ministry
Adedokun Waliyu 
The Nigerian government, through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, disclosed on Wednesday, according to the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
No fewer than 3,834,244 cyberattacks were successfully prevented before, during and after the March 18, 2023 governorship and state houses of assembly elections in Nigeria.
The Nigerian government, through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, disclosed on Wednesday, according to the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
SaharaReporters recently reported that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said that a total of 12,988,978 cyberattacks that originated within and outside Nigeria during February 25, 2023 presidential and legislative elections were blocked.
Pantami said the daily threats to public websites and portals totalled 1,550,000, with the figure rising to 6,997,277 on the day of the presidential and National Assembly elections.
According to a statement issued by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy’s spokesperson, Uwa Sulaiman, a series of hacking attempts were recorded during the period, including Distributed Denial of Service, email and IPS attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute Force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing.
The statement noted that the minister had directed all parastatals to increase their 24/7 monitoring of networks and traffic for potential attacks from February 24 to February 27, 2023, and that Pantami had inaugurated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure on February 24, 2023.
The committee, chaired by the NCC Board Chairman, which included the CEOs of the NCC, NITDA, and GBB, was tasked with monitoring telecommunication infrastructure for the successful conduct of credible, free, fair, and transparent elections; developing and implementing plans to enhance the resilience of critical digital infrastructure against cyber threats; designing procedures and using technologies to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks; and developing the NCC’s cyber security strategy.
The committee was also tasked with developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analysing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, and identifying gaps that must be addressed, all while providing professional advice to the government on the effective use of digital technologies in the conduct of government business.
