Over three million National Identity Numbers of Nigerians
have been stolen after a hacker known only as Sam broke into the server of the National Identity Management Commission.

Revealing how easy it was for him to breach the NIMC server and access personal information of millions of Nigerians in an article he shared on infosecwriteups.com, the hacker boastedthat he got access to “juice” on the Nigerian Governmentagency’s server and that he could go ahead to do whatever he desired with other sensitive data at his disposal.

Displaying a defaced National Identity card of a Nigerian
alongside the article, the hacker said, “I've got one more
output for s3 bucket, I casually tried to access it without any
hope, and damn! The s3 bucket is full of juice.

“I just simply got access to their (Nigeria) data of internal
files, users and everything they have. I can download
everything, even the whole bucket. I am sure that the bucket
is full of juice.

“I wanted to look at more files but as we have to follow bug
bounty rules I stopped doing more.

“I've got one more s3 bucket with nuclei and it also contained about 4–5 gigs of data.

“I’ve rewarded 5250$ for only one report and 0$ for the
second one even it contained so much sensitive data,” the
hacker wrote in the article that has continued to generate
reactions from some Nigerians on Twitter especially tech
enthusiasts.

A user on the micro-blogging platform with the handle
@isidags while reacting to the development said, “I’m
shocked Nigerians are shocked.

“Seems you people don’t know the government and country
you’re involved with.”

Another user known as @boluxxxx while commenting said,
“Jokes aside, this is enough reason for Buhari to sack
Pantami.”

Berating Nigeria’s weak cyber security, another Twitter user,
@bespokeKENErd, said, “It was only a matter of time before
this happened.

“Nigeria’s information security is ridiculously lax. So careless with sensitive data.”

@St_Gothica while reacting to the issue said, “This is exactly
why I never wanted to do the NIN registration. Delayed it as
long as I could.”

Another Twitter user, @The_Jonathanian, said, “Somebody
should tell Sheik Pantami that the most sensitive data of
Nigerians under his care have been compromised and floating in the wild.”

The hacking of the NIMC server has not only exposed
Nigeria’s weak cyber security but also highlighted the danger
the country’s residents and investments were currently under.

The latest cyber attack comes less than two months after
the Nigerian Communications Commission in November 2021 issued a warning that an Iranian hacking group was planning to carry out cyber espionage across Africa.

A statement from the agency had further disclosed that the
hackers were targeting telecoms, Internet Service Providers,
and Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria and other African
countries.

The incident also comes months after the President
Muhammadu Buhari administration while mandating Nigerians to enroll for National Identification Number claimed that it was going to stop crimes in the country including those perpetrated via the Internet.

Speaking during the launch of the National Policy for the
Promotion of Indigenous Content in Nigerian Telecoms Sector and Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Cards
registration in May 2021, President Buhari said, “The NIN will
cover one of the weaknesses in our security structure. We will be able to easily identify and know the personality of
Nigerians.

“We will identify people easily, including the crooks.”
Assuring Nigerians of how vital the new system would be to
crime fighting in the country, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, in June 2021, claimed
that incidents of terror such as banditry and kidnapping in the country had significantly reduced as a result of the insistence by government for persons in Nigeria to register for NIN.

Pantami went further to say that the improved database will
protect Nigerians more than ever before.

But despite those assurances, the latest attack has exposed
the failure of the President Buhari administration to protect
Nigerians from cyber criminals.

Over 60 million Nigerians had so far been captured on the
national identity database, according to the NIMC.


http://saharareporters.com/2022/01/10/exclusive-hacker-breaks-nimc-server-steals-over-three-million-national-identity-numbers

Pantami what do you have to say about this

This is what happens when you hand over people's data to a confirmed terrorist.

Only a mumu will be shocked or surprised by this.

It was an insider's job not a hacker.If anything happen to people's bank accounts pantami should be held responsible because it was my bvn and my pop's that I used to enrolled for our NIN.Is pantami trying to tell me that the software developer who installed the server did not install firewalls and other security software?

I am not surprised.

Nigeria is a waste of time. Which hacker? Na dem dem jare.

Now dat U have hacked it what are U going to do with it? Nigeria is not the west where accounts and credit cards are linked to social security number

Hacker or their agent? You believe this government you can believe anything.

Pantami have finally given these data as we predicted to Terrorists

Lobatan

Pantami hefaya pyam

Right from the beginning,I no trust dat pantami with him NIN nonsense.

Thought

Zero infosec skilled Pantami can't keep anything safe.

Only crying about "Professor" of Jihad insecurity

Nbotee:
Now dat U have hacked it what are U going to do with it? Nigeria is not the west where accounts and credit cards are linked to social security number

Open bank accounts, take loans and commit fraud using other peoples names. When it finally gets investigated the trail leads to someone other sucker. I'm sure some clever fraudsters could make use of this information and get scheming.

Nigerians don't take data serious.

How

Blue3k:


Open bank accounts, take loans and commit fraud using other peoples names. When it finally gets investigated the trail leads to someone other sucker. I'm sure some clever fraudsters could make use of this information and get scheming.

Even if U attempt to open an account using the name and details of the National ID, U do realise it also contains the photos of the owners. BVN verification will turn up different details

Nbotee:


Even if U attempt to open an account using the name and details of the National ID, U do realise it also contains the photos of the owners. BVN verification will turn up different details

You think fraudsters wont make IDs? BVN idk about.

Nbotee:


Even if U attempt to open an account using the name and details of the National ID, U do realise it also contains the photos of the owners. BVN verification will turn up different details

The situation is more of giving him a starting point. Now he knows who you are and where to start....He may not have known you existed or your have an account with a particular bank or your BVN! Now he has enough Bio data (PII) of you to focus on progressing with the hacking further. He could you it to even start a social Engineering against you, relations or friends

Such compromise Is equally dangerous. The loss of data or compromise is a dangerous thing because knowing your target is a good starting point o ...

NITDA should have done something In terms of this because I know they have being pushing for the Data privacy and cyber security policy and plans