The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said at least 12,988,978 attacks were recorded during Nigeria’s 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections.

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Pantami said the attacks originated from 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 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,” said Mr Pantami.

He said a committee set up by his ministry to curtail the activities of cyber criminals during the elections started work on February 24 and ended on February 28, 2023.

Mr 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 centres successfully blocked these attacks and escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.”

On February 24, 2023, Mr Pantami inaugurated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure.

(NAN)