3.8m cyber attacks on INEC’s portal impossible – IT expert, Dada faults FG

Following the conclusion of elections in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy had disclosed that there were 3,834,244 cyber attacks on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Prof Isa Pantami disclosed this on Wednesday in a statement made known to News Men.

He had said the attacks on the gubernatorial elections were less compared to that of the presidential election, recorded at 12,988,978, according to Pantami.

But in reaction to the figure, an IT consultant, Mr David Dada, speaking during a Channels Television interview on Thursday, said the figure is impossible and doubtful.

He said it was outrightly tricky to have such a number attack.

“I doubt this figure; this is because there is easily a cyber attack map globally; we can easily verify this, but we want to know what kind of tool was used for these attacks. We can easily trace where the attacks are coming from. If the Minister is saying that there are attacks, perhaps he is privy to information we do not know but from the outside, it is almost unbelievable.

“Who is interested in hacking INEC cyber? Maybe attempts were made, but I wonder if the Federal Government is bandying the correct numbers.

“Cyber-attacks are not peculiar to Nigeria; it is a situation everywhere, even in the US”, he said.

Earlier, the Minister, in a statement through his Senior Technical Assistant (Research and Development), Dr Femi Adeluyi, noted that the activities of cyber threat actors on the Nigerian cyberspace during the gubernatorial and House of Assembly elections were much lower than those of the Feb 25 Presidential and NASS elections.

He said a daily breakdown of the attacks shows that: on Friday, Mar 17, 2023, 1,046,896 attacks were recorded, on Saturday, Mar 18, 2023: 1,481,847; Sunday, Mar 19, 2023: 327,718 and on Monday, Mar 20, 2023: 977,783.