The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu said hackers from outside the shore of Nigeria attacked the commission’s portal during the Ekiti and Osun governorship election.
Mahmood disclosed this while delivering a keynote address at a stakeholders’ conference on election result management in Abuja on Friday, September 9, 2022.
He said, “Another technical concern for us is the repeated attempts to break through our cyber security system for the portal.
“Our engineers reported several cyber attacks on the portal during the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, some of them from as far as Asia.
“I am glad to note that all of them failed.
“However, while we are confident in the security solutions that we have deployed for IReV (result viewing centre) and all our web presence, we must remain vigilant and continue to strengthen our defences.
“We have tasked our engineers to do everything possible to fully protect the IReV and all our web resources.”
The INEC boss also disclosed that the commission is working to address other challenges facing it.
He said: “For example, we found that some of the low-quality uploads that occurred in the field, which some of the observers have also noted, were due to the unavailability or substitution of presiding officers that were trained prior to the elections.
“We shall administratively deal with this challenge and ensure that only adequately trained presiding officers are deployed for elections.
Mahmood added that more hands-on training may be required to ensure that all those involved throughout the value chain of the IReV are fully ready for what is bound to be a major outing during the 2023 general election.
