Nearly 13 million cyberattacks surrounding elections in Nigeria

Abuja According to government figures, Nigeria recorded 12.9 million cyber attacks during the presidential election on February 24 and the three days that followed. A good half of the attacks took place on election day, the rest during the vote count, said Communications Minister Isa Pantami on Tuesday. The attacks were carried out “from inside and outside Nigeria,” Pantami said, without giving further details. It was initially unclear whether the cyber attacks might have had an impact on the outcome of the vote.

The election in Africa’s most populous country had been accompanied by glitches. The system of the national electoral commission collapsed during the counting process, making electronic transmission of the results impossible. The results mainly had to be evaluated manually. Pantami gave no indication that the system error could have been caused by a hacker attack.