By: Success James
There has been series of cyber attacks on Borno State Online Newspapers, Yerwa Express News, social media platforms.
This was revealed in a press release made available to Maidawaarewa by the organization on the 20th February 2021.
“We are sad to inform our esteemed readers that our social media platforms have come under several cyber-attacks in recent times”.
They suspect that the attacks were launched by a terrorists’ cyber syndicate who find their consistent reports against ISWAP and Boko Haram unsettling.
Furthermore, they stated that the syndicate have taken the habit of filing various impersonation reports against their pages on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp since they started a new project to detail the public about the growing threats of the terrorist groups across the North East and the Lake Chad Region.
After series of checks conducted by Network Against Scam and Cyber Crime on all their platforms, it revealed that the coordinated attacks started last month when their Twitter account, @YerwaExpress, was reported repeatedly after they published several reports against ISWAP.
As a result of the consistency of the syndicate, Twitter Inc. took down the page in January 22, 2022, without contacting them for verification. Their appeals are yet to be responded to despite all efforts made by the organization.
TOn Facebook, the syndicates’ antics includes opening multiple pages with their name, logo and information. The purpose is to convince Facebook to also take down their official page.
Yerwa Express also reported that the latest attack in which they lost control of the page, with username @Yerwaexpress, was on February 19, shortly after they published a report about why ISWAP is a more dangerous faction of the terrorist organizations operating in the Lake Chad Region.
Fortunately, there were also multiple unsuccessful attacks on the news site, www.yen.ng, as it is effectively defended.
In the meantime, they can be followed on the following platforms: Facebook: Yerwa Express News (Yerwa Express News), Instagram: @yerwa_express (instagram.com/yerwa_express) and Twitter: @yerwaexpresskan (twitter.com/yerwaexpresskan) as contained in the press release.
The organization further request the cooperation of their followers to kindly report the page @Yerwaexpress for impersonation as they no longer have control over it.
They finally assured their audience that all resources have been put in place to restore and secure the platforms within the shortest time possible. Also that their commitment to bringing authentic and timely news is only further emboldened as this is a proof that their work is making the required impact.
