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Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has revealed how fraudulent people attempted to hack into the INEC Results Viewing iRev Portal the commission’s portal during the last Ekiti and Osun elections with a view to changing the polling units-level results but that they failed.
Speaking at a forum in Abuja, the INEC boss 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. Although there were concerns that one of the political parties in the Osun election actually succeeded in hacking the portal, the results of which it intended to present at the tribunal, INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has dismissed such claims.
“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 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 said at a forum in Abuja.
Speaking with Saturday Vanguard, Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi also said 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.
On the Federal High Court judgement which ordered the commission to recognize Senator Godswill Akpabio as the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate for Akwa Ibom Northwest, Mr Oyekanmi said the commission had not yet received a copy of the order as of yesterday afternoon.
“We read the reports of the said court judgment in the media like everybody else. We are yet to receive the certified true copy of the court processes and as such, we cannot be reacting based on media reports.
“However, when we eventually receive it, we will carefully study it. If the position of the court is not in agreement with what we believe to be right and just, the Commission reserves the right to take further action. But that is a decision the Commission would have to take,” he stated.
