Nigeria Hackers steals 3Million NIn numbers from NIMC Database
NIMC Data Breach rocks NIMC Database as hacker boasted that he had access to “juice” on the server of a Nigerian government agency and that he could do anything he wanted with other sensitive material at his disposal.
Over three million Nigerians’ National Identity Numbers were taken after a hacker known only as Sam gained access to the National Identity Management Commission’s server.
In an article published on infosecwriteups.com, the hacker boasted that he gained access to “juice” on the Nigerian Government agency’s server and that he could do whatever he wanted with other sensitive data at his disposal, revealing how easy it was for him to breach the NIMC server and access personal information of millions of Nigerians.
“I’ve got one more output for s3 bucket, I carelessly tried to access it without any hope, and damn!” the hacker remarked, holding up a defaced National Identity Card of a Nigerian with the article. The s3 bucket is brimming with juice.
“I just obtained access to all of their (Nigeria) data, including internal files, users, and everything else.” I have access to anything, including the entire bucket. I’m certain the bucket is overflowing with juice.
“I wanted to look at more files, but we had to stick to bug bounty regulations, so I stopped.”
“I have one more s3 bucket with nuclei that has roughly 4–5 gigabytes of data in it.”
“I’ve given 5250$ for only one report and 0$ for the second one, even though it contained so much important info,” the hacker said in the essay, which has sparked comments from several Nigerians, particularly IT aficionados, on Twitter.
“I’m astonished Nigerians are shocked,” a user on the microblogging network with the handle @isidags wrote in response to the news.
“It appears that you people are unaware of the government and country with which you are associated.”
“Jokes aside, this is ample grounds for Buhari to remove Pantami,” another user named @boluxxxx commented.
Another Twitter user, @bespokeKENErd, criticized Nigeria’s insufficient cyber security, saying, “It was only a matter of time before this happened.”
“Nigeria’s information security is laughably inadequate. So irresponsible with vital information.”
The NIMC Database hack not only exposed Nigeria’s deficient cyber security, but it also underscored the dangers that its citizens and investments are currently facing.
The latest NIMC Data breach comes little over two months after the Nigerian Communications Commission warned that an Iranian hacking organization was planned cyber espionage across Africa in November 2021.
Nigeria hackers were also targeting telcos, Internet Service Providers, and Ministries of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria and other African countries, according to a statement from the agency.
The incident also comes months after President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration stated that by requiring Nigerians to register for a National Identification Number, it would be able to prevent crimes in the country, particularly those committed via the Internet.
“The NIN number would cover one of the holes in our security structure,” President Buhari remarked during the unveiling of the National Policy for the Promotion of Indigenous Content in the Nigerian Telecoms Sector and Revised National Identity Policy for SIM Card Registration in May 2021. We would be able to quickly recognize Nigerians and learn about their personalities.
“We’ll be able to quickly identify people, especially the criminals.”
In June 2021, Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, assured Nigerians of the importance of the new system in combating crime in the country, claiming that incidents of terror such as banditry and kidnapping in the country had significantly decreased as a result of the government’s insistence that all Nigerians register for NIN number.
Pantami went on to declare that the new database will better protect Nigerians than ever before.
Despite these claims, the recent cyber attack has exposed the Buhari administration’s incompetence to protect Nigerians from cyber thieves.
According to the NIMC, the national identity database had already recorded almost 60 million Nigerians.
NIN number, NIMC Database
Credit: SaharaReporters
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The government should do something about it