The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday disclosed that it has commenced an investigation into the alleged misuse of authorised access credentials and unauthorised disclosure of information from its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database.
A few days ago, Mr Lere Olayinka, the media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, posted the voter registration details of a popular actor turned politician, Mr Emeka Ike.
The URL on the slip showed that the information was harvested from the admin page of the electoral umpire, triggering calls for an investigation into the unauthorised access to citizens’ data.
Apparently worried by the controversies generated by this, INEC today, via a statement signed by its National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Mr Mohammed Kudu Haruna, said it’s looking into the matter.
It also disclosed that the Department of State Services (DSS) has shown interest in the case by conducting “an independent investigation.”
INEC explained that as part of the ongoing CVR exercise nationwide, authorised INEC Registration Officers were granted controlled access to specific components of the CVR system to enable them to register new applicants, process requests for transfer of registration and update voter records where necessary.
“Such access is restricted to official duties only and is withdrawn at the conclusion of the exercise,” it noted.
“The audit trail from the preliminary investigation has enabled the commission to identify the user account through which the information was accessed. Accordingly, relevant personnel have been questioned, and all units connected with the incident are cooperating fully with the investigation,” it stated.
The electoral body stated that it “is also examining all technical, administrative and operational factors associated with the matter in order to establish individual responsibility and determine the circumstances surrounding the use of those credentials and identify any breach of internal access-control protocols before taking appropriate action against anyone involved.”
“Preliminary findings from the commission’s audit trail so far, however, indicate that there was no external breach of the CVR database, no hacking incident, and no unauthorised external access to the Commission’s ICT infrastructure.
“Rather, the information in question was accessed through valid user credentials assigned to personnel participating in the ongoing CVR exercise but released without authority,” it added.
INEC disclosed that, “The incident under investigation relates to the retrieval of a specific voter record and does not indicate any compromise of the commission’s broader voter registration infrastructure or the personal data of over 90 million registered voters.”
It emphasised that security, confidentiality and integrity of voter data are taken with the utmost seriousness and remains committed to transparency, institutional integrity, and the protection of voters’ personal information.
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