Federal government Tuesday said a total of 12,988,978 cyber attacks were recorded from both within and outside Nigeria during the Presidential and National assembly elections.
The FG however, said it successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.
This was contained in a statement made available to journalists by spokesperson to the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Uwa Sulaiman.
According to the statement, parastatals under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy played a crucial role in providing the enabling environment for the successful conduct of a credible, free, fair, and transparent election.
Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Professor Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), had on the eve of the presidential and national assembly elections set up a Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure to ensure a safe and secure cyberspace for Nigerians before, during, and after the 2023 Presidential elections.
According to the statement, 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, this skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on Presidential Election Day,” it said.
The statement disclosed that in line with its mandate of securing the Nigerian cyberspace, the parastatals under the supervision of the Ministry established Cybersecurity Centers, namely, the National Information Technology (NITDA)’s Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team (CERRT), the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (CSIRT), and Galaxy Backbone (GBB)’s Security Operations Centre (SOC).
“These Centers were established between 2020 and 2022 in line with the Minister’s policy directives and have been monitoring Nigerian cyberspace for potential threats and taking appropriate actions to mitigate them, both individually and collectively as well as in collaboration with other stakeholders,” it noted.
It commends all stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem for their support that resulted into the success.
