TheCable

The Defence Space Administration (DSA) says it stopped alleged attempts by #EndSARS protesters to pull down government websites.

In 2020, there was a nationwide campaign against police brutality, particularly regarding the operations of the dissolved special anti-robbery squad (SARS), under the #EndSARS campaign.

During the protest, a Twitter account identified with the username, ‘Anonymous’, had claimed responsibility for hacking into some government accounts in solidarity with the protesters.

Following the cyber-attack, Galaxy Backbone, the government-owned information and communication technology (ICT) company, had asked all government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to activate certain steps to secure their platforms.

William Kayoda, the DSA chief, while receiving the senate committee on defence on Wednesday, said the agency was able to prevent the deactivation of government and military websites.

“In fact, during the EndSARS protest, we were coming to work even on Saturdays and Sundays,” he said.

“Most of the government websites that the #EndSARS attempted to pull down, we were actually monitoring and we made sure that they did not deactivate them.

“We kept them active, especially the military websites. We got a commendation for that from the office of the national security adviser.”

Kayoda said the agency is also doing a lot to improve cyber security, adding that Nigerians should expect a lot of activities in defence of the country’s space to track hideouts of terrorists and bandits in the north.

He gave an assurance of the military’s victory in the war against terrorism, and pointed out that the agency is efficient in providing space surveillance intelligence.

According to NAN, Kayoda, however, said lack of funds is limiting the DSA’s operations.

“We really require a lot of funding to quickly attack these issues from multiple angles,” he said.

“The situation on ground as regards overhead has not changed. We complained bitterly about the issue of overhead.

“We get N180 million per annum; N15 million per month. From the N15 million, we pay an average of N2.7 million monthly on electricity bill alone. We pay N6 million per subscription for the cyber centre. We really need our overhead to be improved.”

The DSA was created to support military operations within and outside the country, as well as security agencies responsible for internal security through the use of satellite programmes.