The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has revealed how some hackers, including some in Asia, attempted to hack into the INEC Results Viewing iRev Portal during the last Ekiti and Osun elections.
Speaking at a forum in Abuja, the INEC chairman stated that the hackers wanted to change the polling units-level results but that they failed.
It has been reported that incumbent Governor of Osun State, Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was defeated by Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun Guber election.
Professor Yakubu, however, assured that the commission had taken steps to strengthen its digital assets with a view to ensuring foolproof security of all its web-based resources.
He also dismissed claims that one of the political parties in the Osun election succeeded in hacking the portal and would present the purported at the tribunal.
According to him, INEC 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 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.”
Confirming the attempts to attack its portal, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi told Vanguard that the commission successfully dealt with the threats.
He assured that INEC’s team of engineers would continue to anticipate such threats and consistently evolve security safeguards for its dog talk assets.
“All online resources, like websites or portals, are prone to attacks or hacking. It is a common phenomenon. What the INEC Chairman talked about was an attempt by some rouges to compromise the integrity of our INEC Result Viewing Portal. But the Commission successfully dealt with the threats,” said Oyekanmi.
