Presidential election in 2023 recorded over 12 million cyberattacks, according to FG

According to the Nigerian authorities, 12,988,978 cyberattacks were detected on February 25 during the presidential and national assembly elections.

A committee was established by President Muhammadu Buhari to safeguard the ICT (information and communication technology) infrastructure during the elections.

Speaking on the outcome of the committee’s efforts, Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, in a statement on Tuesday, said prior to the elections, the daily number of threats against public websites was about 1,550,000.

Pantami said the threats increased significantly to about six million on election day.

The minister said about 12 million attacks were successfully blocked from both local and international territories.

“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,” he said.

“Generally, threats to public websites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily. However, this skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on presidential election day.

“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, Ppth traversal, detection evasion, and forceful browsing.

“A total of 12,988,978 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria. It is worth noting that the centres successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.”

Pantami appreciated the president and the committee for playing a crucial role in providing the enabling environment for the successful conduct of the election.

He commended all stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem for their support which resulted in achieving unprecedented success.