Oluwanifemi Ojo
Cybersecurity experts in the country have faulted the Federal Government’s claim that 12.99 million cyber attacks were recorded during the elections.
The Punch reported that these experts said it was impossible for close to 13 million cyber attacks to occur during this poll.
According to the experts, government should explain its claim and allow experts to look into the system.
This publication recalls that the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, on Tuesday revealed that 12.99 million cyber attacks were recorded during election period.
He said that series of cyberattacks were recorded on election week with about 6.99 attacks on election day which was February 25, 2023.
Speaking about the attacks, a statement signed by Pantami’s spokesperson, Uwa Sulaiman, partly reads, “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, this skyrocketed to 6,997,277 on Presidential Election Day.”
This statement have spurred reactions of cyber security experts explaining that propaganda could be informing the claim.
Speaking with The Punch, the President of Nigeria Computer Society, Professor Adesina Sodiya, said, “Based on my personal experience, I am wondering how they would experience that amount of large cyberattack in a day during the election.
“Based on my experience, I do not think we could have up to that. But we need further information as to why they said that.”
He added that the society tried to find out if the Independent National Electoral Commission recorded any recent cyberattacks, but the chairman confirmed the was none.
“Now that they are saying there were cyberattacks, it is not correlating,” he said.
Sodiya further stated, “In my experience as a professor of cybersecurity, they cannot experience that amount of cyberattacks.
“Cyberattacks are sometimes coordinated. When they try once and they don’t get access, they try again.”