- How NITDA, NCC, GBB battle-proof Nigeria’s cyberspace
By DelliOGBODO
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Ibrahim Pantami, is proud to wear cybersecurity professorial garb. This stands him therefore as Nigeria’s cyberspace gate keeper.
His duty in simple index is to ensure that Nigeria’s space is safe and secured, especially at volatile moments as thrown up by the just concluded 2023 elections.
Pantami, as acknowledged by his staff has admitted that the several millions of attacks ostensibly directed on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) infrastructure by cyberthreat actors and hackers is therefore neither surprising nor unexpected.
On the deluge of threat in and around the February 25 elections, in a statement signed by his Senior Technical Assistant, Dr. Femi Adeluyi, he underscores that Nigeria being Africa’s largest democracy, the Presidential and National Assembly (NASS) elections are bound to attract much attention of everyone, including cyberthreat actors, than during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections.
“It is interesting to note that the activities of cyberthreat actors on the Nigerian cyberspace during the Gubernatorial and State Assembly elections (3 million) are much lower than those during the Presidential and National Assembly elections.” (12million plus) The Minister’s Assistant, noted.
On the Presidential and NASS elections, recall that Mrs. Uwa Suleiman, Spokesperson to the Minister, had in a recent statement she appended, said: “A total of more than 12 million (12,988,978) attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside the shores of Nigeria.
“It is worth noting that 3 safeguard centres of NCC, NITDA and GBB successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.” Suleiman, said.
On the contrary at the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections, Adeluyi, rationalized: “A total of 3,834,244 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria. Daily breakdown of these attacks, he added were: Friday 17th March, 2023: 1,046,896, Saturday 18th March, 2023: 1,481,847, Sunday 19th March, 2023: 327,718, Monday 20th March, 2023: 977,783.
However, the Minister, he said expressed confidence that the implementation of some recommendations as well as measures taken to fortify our cyber defence mechanisms might have helped in this.
The statement said, “As a follow up to that and in line with the Ministry’s mandate as well as in our efforts aimed at supporting the initiatives of securing the Nigerian cyberspace, the Minister directed the Ministerial Standing Committee on Advisory Role for the Protection of Nigerian Cyberspace and ICT Infrastructure to further enhance the cyberspace surveillance activities of the 3 cybersecurity centres:
“The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Galaxy Backbone Limited (GBB).
“Based on Minister’s directives, the committee provided close oversight on the activities of the cybersecurity centres, from Friday 17th March, 2023 to Monday 20th March, 2023. During this period and as previously reported, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and Internet Protocol Spoofing (IPS) attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing.
“It may also be recalled that the committee, inaugurated by the Minister on the eve of the Presidential and National Assembly elections was charged and mandated with the:
“Monitoring of Telecommunication Infrastructure for the successful conduct of the 2023 General Elections, developing and implementing plans to enhance the resilience of critical digital infrastructure against cyber threats, designing procedures and using technologies to prevent, detect, and respond to cyber-attacks, as well as developing the ability to quickly recover from any damage that is done.
“Developing a comprehensive risk assessment, analysing the nation’s current cybersecurity capabilities, and identifying gaps that need to be addressed; and providing professional advice to the government on the effective utilisation of digital technologies in the conduct of the 2023 General Elections.
Based on Minister’s directives, the committee provided close oversight on the activities of the cybersecurity centres, from Friday 17th March, 2023 to Monday 20th March, 2023, explaining that during this period and as previously reported, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and Internet Protocol Spoofing (IPS) attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing, the statement, added.