That is the multi-million naira question that cyber police may be rapidly seeking answer to as Naija Times, a fast-rising online newspaper, has come under sustained cyberattacks by dare-devil hackers who are desperate on bringing the upscale news medium down.
According to the newspaper’s publisher, Mr. Ehi Braimah, vicious hackers have, for about a week since February 13, 2024, turned the Naija Times website into a playground of sort, unleashing highly sophisticated attacks that almost crashed the online newspaper.
But the organisation’s technology team was up to the task as they frustrated the desperate attacks by the malicious hackers.
Braimah, a corporate communications and marketing guru, said the attacks hit a crescendo on Monday, February 19, 2024 with “more than 600 lockouts in less than one hour”, then, cumulatively, “over 9,900 sustained attacks” hit the website.
“The motive for the attacks is unknown, but our technology team reported that the attacks became intense yesterday(February 19, 2024).”
Though the publisher did not finger any person or organization for masterminding the attack, he said the “unrestrained attacks were clearly aimed at undermining the integrity of the online newspaper.”
He said the hackers, in their desperation to crash the website, used multiple IP addresses, and made several unsuccessful attempts to compromise the back-end of the website as they tried to gain access.
The Crest recalls that banks have come under media spotlight in recent time for their unsavory roles in compounding the economic adversity of Nigeria through criminal practices that made their executives live like kings and queens at the expense of their depositors and customers at large.
In the main, bank executives have been severally accused of round-tripping and other disingenuous transactions that bolster the revenue and profit of their banks but do not provide real economic benefits to their customers and clientele in general.
Indeed, financial experts have fingered bank executives as the real culprits behind the disastrous crash of the Naira. The experts also posit that the failure of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to move decisively against the unscrupulous bank executives has encouraged them to continue with the evil practices at the expense of Nigeria and Nigerians.
Recently, Naija Times published a story that was critical of one of the banks. The story went viral and an agent who claimed to be a journalist and PR consultant, representing one of the banks, approached the online newspaper, requesting the organization to pull down the story. But the Board of Editors refused.
However, the publisher of Naija Times cannot categorically pinpoint any person or organization as the brain behind the sustained cyber attacks that his organization has been recently subjected.
“We cannot immediately confirm whether the cyber attacks have anything to do with the bank’s request, which we turned down,” Braimah said in the press statement that he issued on the unfortunate incident.
“Our tech team,” Braimah continued, “has been diligent and proactive in responding to the mindless attacks by ring-fencing the website and enhancing its security architecture.”
The release recalled that Naija Times was formally launched as an online newspaper on September 15, 2020, with the “primary objective of advocating for a better Nigeria with strong institutions, respect for the rule of law, and defending the public interest.
“These ideals are expressed in the vision and mission statements of the newspaper.”