Gbenga Sesan, the executive director of ParadigmHQ, revealed a significant data breach involving the National Identification Number (NIN) slips of high-profile individuals, including Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
ParadigmHQ Says they Purchased NIN Slips of Bosun Tijani, NITDA Boss for N100 Each and Digital Economy, and Dr. Vincent Olatunji, Director-General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). Sesan disclosed that he purchased these slips for just N100 each.
In an interview on News Central TV on June 24, 2024, Sesan highlighted the breach and its implications. He pointed out that the service involved, Expressverify, had previously been reported for its role in similar breaches.
“It’s not just that there’s a small breach; it’s that there’s another data breach. Expressverify was the one involved in the merge, and we reported that,” Sesan said.
He also thanked FYJ for their support and mentioned that the Data Protection Commission had been informed.
However, Sesan expressed disappointment with their response, stating, “I’m not surprised that NIMCY got a slap on the wrist, which means they were willing to look away again.”
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Following the breach, Expressverify went offline, and shortly after, another verification service, Ennyverify.com.ng, also went offline. Sesan attributed Ennyverify’s disappearance to growing public awareness and concern about the data breaches.
He criticized NIMCY’s response to the situation, calling their press statement “silly” for trying to shift the blame onto Nigerian citizens.
“NIMCY’s press statement attempted to shift the blame away from Nigerian citizens, claiming that the issue was not with them. That press statement is at least silly, because it suggests that Nigerians are giving their own data to these false or fake websites. But no, this is NIMCY’s data, and we now have proof,” Sesan said.
He emphasized the severity of the situation by demonstrating how easily they could obtain NIN slips of prominent individuals for a minimal fee.
“We obtained the NIN slip of the Minister, Dr. Bosun Tijani, and the NIN slip of Nigeria’s number one data regulator, Dr. Vincent Olatunji. We bought them for N100 each to demonstrate that this is not a joke,” Sesan added.