10 March 2020
10 March 2020
- Cyber attacks launched after publishing of investigative story revealing rift within the government
- Pentesting attacks attributed to the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA)
- University professor quickly identified a scapegoat, and then gave no further comments
The online newspaper Premium Times Nigeria suffered a wave of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks on March 1st. The digital attacks took place as the Department of State Services (DSS) pressured the newspaper for an investigative story revealing a rift withing the closest circle of the president. The attacks were sourced from the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), which quickly assured Qurium that a student was responsible for the actions, without giving further explanation.
On February 29th, it was made public that the DSS had launched a manhunt for Samuel Ogundipe, an investigative journalist with Premium Times, over a report on the rift between Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, and National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno. On March 1st, two men suspected to be officials of the State Security Service attempted to breach the home of Premium Times’ Editor-in-Chief, Musikilu Mojeed, claiming they had a message to deliver to him.
Meanwhile, an online attacker was trying to find vulnerabilities in the Premium Times website and, starting from March 1st, launched DDoS attacks aiming to take the news site down. Qurium’s investigation places the attacker in the Federal University of Technology, Akure, carrying out the attack outside regular University hours (Saturday evening). On March 6th, Professor Boniface Kayode Alese from the Department of Computer Science at FUTA confirmed that a “male student” performed the attacks “for pleasure”, but refused to answer to questions about the student’s motivation, and how he could access this specific part of the University infrastructure on a Saturday night.
Qurium’s forensics report: Cyberattack against Premium Times Nigeria attributed to “student” at the Federal University of Technology, Akure
Contacts:
Digital forensics: Tord Lundström, Qurium Media Foundation <t@virtualroad.org>
Media: Clara Zid, Qurium Media Foundation <info@virtualroad.org>