For about a week since February 13, 2024, the Naija Times website has been the playground of vicious cyber crime perpetrated by malicious hackers.
The motive for the attacks is unknown, but our technology team reported that the attacks became intense yesterday.
In a statement by Ehi Braimah, Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Naija Times, he disclosed that there were more than 600 lockouts in less than one hour yesterday, but cumulatively, over 9,900 sustained attacks hit the website.
The unrestrained attacks were clearly aimed at undermining the integrity of the online newspaper.
In their desperation to crash the website, the hackers used multiple IP addresses.
They also made several unsuccessful attempts to compromise the backend of the website as they tried to gain access.
Recently, Naija Times was approached by an agent who claimed to be a journalist and PR consultant, representing one of the banks, to pull down a story, but the Board of Editors refused.
We cannot immediately confirm whether the cyber attacks have anything to do with the bank’s request, which we turned down.
“Our tech team,” said Braimah, “have been diligent and proactive in responding to the mindless attacks by ring-fencing the website and enhancing its security architecture.”
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.
