NIMC Server Hacked, Tecno Server Hacked, 3M NIN Stolen, Which Should We Believe?

Earlier reports suggested that over 3 million Nigerians National Identity Numbers were hacked from NIMC servers by a reknown hackers called Sam.

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 boasted that he got access to “juice” on the Nigerian Government agency’s server and that he could go ahead to do whatever he desired with other sensitive data at his disposal.

In the earlier article, he displayed 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.

The NIN data of millions of Nigerians is now freely accessible to barely competent hackers.

This is the data that can be used to obtain passports, register phone lines, do KYC etc.

Nigerians have been massively set up for disaster by @DrIsaPantamihttps://t.co/rvayA9lJNi

— David Hundeyin (@DavidHundeyin) January 10, 2022

However, the article has been debunked and edited by the hacker, and he claimed he only gained access into Tecno servers, and that they have fixed it within.

Guys, I am a bug hunter , and recently I found a S3 bucket, in @TecnoSRC company's bug bounty program, and the bucket is open and it contained the data of company , Now news headlines are , messing everything here, I've starigtly reported it to Tecno, and they fixed it within..

— Sam (@__Sam0_0) January 10, 2022

Reactions Won’t Stop on Twitter

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.