Our Results Portal Was Attacked From Asia During Ekiti, Osun Governorship Polls — Electoral Body, INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has stated that hackers attacked its result viewing (IReV) portal during the recent Ekiti and Osun states’ elections.

This was stated by the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, on Friday in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at a stakeholders’ conference on election result management.

A civic society organization (CSO), YIAGA Africa, organised the meeting to introduce the election result analysis dashboard (ERAD) report agenda.

“Another technical concern for us is the repeated attempts to break through our cyber security system for the portal,” he said.

“Our engineers reported several cyberattacks 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 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.”

Yakubu also stated that INEC was working to address other challenges which were administrative.

“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,” he said.

“We shall administratively deal with this challenge and ensure that only adequately trained Presiding Officers are deployed for elections.

“Also, 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.”

Asides from challenges, the INEC chairman noted that the commission had introduced new legal provisions, administrative procedures and technological innovations to improve the forthcoming elections in 2023.