Cybersafety: How Nigeria monitored digital ecosystem, blocked nearly 13m attacks during Presidential Election –Pantami

*Prof. Isa Ali Pantami, Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, discloses the increasing cyberthreats to Nigeria’s cyberspace, and how threat intelligence at cybersecurity centres blocked nearly 13 million hacking attempts before, during and after the country’s 2023 Presidential Election

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

The Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has related its activities on ensuring a safe and secure cyberspace for Nigerians before, during, and after the 2023 Presidential Election.

Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami), FCIIS, FBCS, FNCS, Honourable Minister for Communications and Digital Economy, said as part of its mandate, the Ministry is expected to ensure adequate protection of the West African country’s cyberspace to a level that citizens will have confidence in digital services.

Cybercriminal

Uwa Sulaiman, Spokesperson to the Minister in a statement issued Tuesday, March 14, 2023, noted Pantami said the Ministry’s mandate aligns with the goals and objectives of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a Digital Nigeria.

“In line with this mandate and in our efforts at supporting the initiatives of securing the Nigerian cyberspace, the parastatals under the supervision of the Ministry have established Cybersecurity Centres, 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),” stated the Minister.

Menace of increasing threats to Nigeria’s cyberspace

The statement disclosed the Centres were established between 2020 and 2022 in accordance with the Honourable 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.

Pantami also said in the run-up to the 2023 General Elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyberthreats to Nigerian cyberspace.

The Minister noted: “Generally, threats to public Web sites and portals averaged around 1,550,000 daily.

“However, this skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on Presidential Election Day.”

In the course of the Presidential and National Assembly elections, it is noted the Honourable Minister, as a Professor of Cybersecurity and one who is very passionate about ensuring a safe and secure cyberspace, directed all the parastatals to enhance their 24/7 monitoring of the networks and traffic for potential attacks from February 24 to 27, 2023.

Constitution of Ministerial Standing Committee

Besides, the Minister, February 24 as well had inaugurated the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure in the country.

Pantami further stated the Committee, chaired by the Board Chairman of NCC, with the CEOs of NCC, NITDA and GBB as members, was charged with the following responsibilities, among others:

1. Monitoring of Telecommunication Infrastructure for the successful conduct of credible, free, fair, and transparent elections;
2. Developing and implementing plans to enhance the resilience of critical digital infrastructure against cyberthreats;
3. Designing procedures and using technologies to prevent, detect, and respond to cyberattacks, as well as developing the ability to recover from any damage that is done quickly;
4. Developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analysing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed; and
5. Providing professional advice to the Government on the effective utilisation of digital technologies in the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.

The Committee’s activity started 24th February 2023 and ended 28th February 2023.

Centres recorded 12,988,978 cyberattacks from within, outside Nigeria

According to the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, during the period, a series of hacking attempts were recorded.

These include Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), e-mail and IPS attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing.

He revealed “a total of 12,988,978 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria.

Commendation for stakeholders

“It is worth noting that the Centres successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action,” stated he.

The Minister explained how the parastatals, under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, had played a crucial role in providing the enabling environment for the successful conduct of a credible, free, fair, and transparent election.

Pantami, therefore, commended all stakeholders in the digital economy ecosystem for their support that resulted in the unprecedented success.

The Honourable Minister, more importantly, noted the Ministry’s attainments are as a result of the commitment of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, to ensuring Nigeria’s successful transition into the digital economy.

According to him, the Nigeria digital economy sector has enjoyed continued support of the President, and it is highly appreciated.

Pantami also hopes that lessons learned during the process will be put to effective use in subsequent elections in the West African country, the statement added.

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