The student of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Afolabi Emmanuel, who tried to hack PREMIUM TIMES website in February has apologised to the medium.
Between late February and early March, the hacker, who operated from FUTA, launched massive cyberattacks on PREMIUM TIMES website.
The attacks happened days after the newspaper ran a series of stories detailing a power tussle between the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, and the then chief of staff to the President, Abba Kyari.
The attacker’s repeated attempts failed as the efforts were blocked by the paper’s security experts as well as its external security consultant, Quirium.
Insiders at FUTA told this newspaper that some experts at the university were hired to identify vulnerabilities on the PREMIUM TIMES website with a view to bringing down the platform.
The university management rejected the allegation in a rejoinder saying there was no institutional backing for the attack and that the attacker was being investigated.
Its investigation led to the identification of Mr Emmanuel, a final year student of Food Science and Technology, as the mastermind of the attack.
For committing “an act that constitutes misconduct and misuse of University IT infrastructure,” the university suspended Mr Emmanuel indefinitely, effective March 18.
Mr Emmanuel too, in a statement he sent to PREMIUM TIMES, has admitted been involved in the cyberattack, apologizing for doing so.
“I am apologizing for my actions as I did not mean any harm as I have worked with other companies in the past to fix security vulnerabilities,” he wrote in his apology mail.
“My aim was to find a security vulnerability on Premium Times infrastructure and report it to them, but, unfortunately, I was unable to,” he added, saying “I am deeply sorry” for not filing any report about his findings nonetheless.
“I hope my apology is accepted and I will be grateful if Quirium and Premium Times are able to put a word out to intervene on my behalf to my school to be more lenient as I will be facing a panel tomorrow (today) at 10 am WAT .
“To show my remorsefulness, willingness to corporate with the heads and not having a nefarious desire towards the organization, I am offering to work/PenTest for/in Quirium security for 6 months to help secure Premium Times if you are willing to accept,” Mr Emmanuel said.
The management of PREMIUM TIMES is yet to comment on Mr Emmanuel’s apology.