The report by the Federal Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali-Pantami, that the Digital Infrastructure of the Federal Government including that of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, came under attack over 12 Million Times within a period of 5 days has been described as not surprising.
Tech and Digital Infrastructure Expert, Tunde Oladipo, disclosed this while speaking on the TVC News Breakfast show on Thursday Morning.
Mr Oladipo said the issue of Cyber Attacks on Digital Infrastructure especially of the Federal Government of Nigeria during the course of the Presidential Election was not a shock but added that what is the issue there is the volume which he described as very high.
He disclosed that the issue of Cyber Attacks, Hacking and Cybercrime is now big business making it a difficult thing to stop.
He said the slightest opportunity that presents itself for hackers, cyber criminals, and organised crime syndicates to gain access into peoples assets through the cyberspace is always exploited with ruthless efficiency.
He described Nigeria’s Election as a very big deal leading to many criminal organisations, cyber criminals and Others trying from across the world to hack into the nations’ digital infrastructure.
He described the level and quantity of attacks as unprecedented but also commended the nations’ digital Infrastructure team for being able to protect the nation from the attacks.
He said the failure of the attacks also shows that Nigeria now has an effective cyber Security team in place.
He disclosed that this is important to guard against scams and Other intrusions with over 1 Billion Scam mails sent in 2021 alone.
He added that 236 Million people were affected by account hacks in the first quarter of 2022 alone.
He pointed out that even the called develop world have suffered from an unprecedented upsurge in the number of Cyber attacks in the last few years with China suffering a 4000 percent increase in account hacks.
He disclosed that he is worried by the upsurge because it will never stop.
Going further, He said the quantity of attacks especially on the Digital Infrastructure on election day is because there was information to be attacked.
According to him, in terms of his experience, the attacks on the facilities of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, started around2.30pm in the afternoon when results were expected to start being uploaded.
He added that this happened between 2.30pm and 7pm to intercept the IRev and change the data and the result sheet..
He said this is why the attacks were so high on the day of the election.
Mr Oladipo said the DDOS that the minister was talking about has two sides with the first being people trying to get unauthorised access to the IRev and the Other being traffic with 176000 people trying to place pictures from across Nigeria at the same time which is quite heavy.
He added that the site must have failed stress tests throughout the whole day.
Mr Oladipo said the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission to upload results on IRev through the BVAS Machines may have been caused by not only traffic but the need to safeguard the integrity of the results.
On what the attacks will mean for the Election Management, he said it will slow down the process of Election and Results Management with the need not just to do the work well but also prevent interference from any unauthorised quarter.
He said the hacking process into the Digital information of people is one that takes some time to accomplish with hackers always patiently waiting before striking at anyone by obtaining information piecemeal before hitting jackpot and then using the gleaned data for nefarious activities.
He said so many sides exist to the cybercrime and one needs to be wary so as not to fall victim.
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