NIMC dismisses alleged data breach, assures safety

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has dismissed as misleading, reports insinuating breach of its database.

This is contained in a statement by Mr Kayode Adegoke, Head, Corporate Communications of the commission, on Saturday in Abuja.

He said the data of Nigerians have not been compromised as being insinuated, adding that the commission had not authorised any website or entity to sell or misuse the National Identification Number (NIN), and other sensitive information of the citizens.

“The following websites: idfinder.com.ng; Verify. Ng/sign in, championtech.com.ng, trustyonline.com, and anyverify.com are data harvesters not authorised by NIMC to access or manage sensitive data.

“NIMC urges the public to disregard any claims or services these websites offer and should not give their data as they are potentially fraudulent and data provided by the public on such websites are gathered and stored to build the data services they illegally provide,” Adegoke said.

He said that commission had adopted proactive measures to safeguard the nation’s database from cyber threats, and provide a secure, world-class, full-proof database.

According to Adegoke, the commission’s infrastructure meets the stringent ISO 27001:2013 Information Security Management System Standards, with annual recertification and strict compliance with the Nigerian Data Protection Law.

While advising Nigerians against giving their data to unauthorised and phishing sites, Adegoke reiterated commitment of the commission to uphold ethical standards in data protection in line with Federal Government’s directives and data privacy regulations.

He also warned that licensed partners or vendors could only verify NINs through approved channels and not authorised to scan or store it.

According to him, NIMC is currently working with security agencies to apprehend the culprits for prosecution.

He, therefore, urged Nigerians to be vigilant against false information and rely on verified sources for accurate updates.

“The Commission remains committed to providing secure and reliable identity management and upholding the highest level of security for systems and databases, which are critical national assets”.