The ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has allegedly engaged the services of some foreign hackers to hack the data base of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s database in attempt to defuse security details of the permanent voters card, 247Ureport reported.
Information according to 247ureports.com, information obtained from a consortium of sources within the security agencies in Abuja indicate that apart from the DSS alleged plan by the opposition All Progressives Congress APC to hack the data base of the electoral umpire, when the security agency raided the data center of the party in Lagos, the Peoples Democratic Party has also reportedly engaged the services of highly skilled exparte workers to ‘illegally’ penetrate into the Servers of the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] to access the database – in order to decode the smart card reader [SCR].
As a caveat, the State Security Service [SSS] had in the first week of January of 2015 raided a secret office of the APC located at 10 Bola Ajiola Street in Ikeja where some items recovered were said to be used in hacking the INEC data base in order to synthetically alter the voting strengths of several locations/zones – and to inject into the voters register data that will give the APC undue advantage.
A reliable source revealed to 247ureports.com revealed that “The PDP since the advent of the smart card readers have taken up the task themselves”.
According to the source, the office of the National Security Advisor [NSA] joined efforts with the PDP to recruit Information Security Specialists who would work to hack into the database of the INEC. “The office of the NSA had brought Indians to see if they can do it, and after about 45days of trials they couldn’t do it, then right now some Isrealis experts are housed somewhere in Abuja and are installing some gadgets to do that for them. I don’t know if they will succeed.” The source who was a one-time contractor to the PDP added that the PDP appeared determined to access the database. “They have put aside large sums on money to achieve it”.
Adding credence to the source is an Information Technologist by the name ‘Deji’ who works at one of the PDP campaign offices located at 14b Samora Micheals Street besides Tony Anenih’s house. According to Deji [a 6feet tall young man – dark in complexion]the PDP had sought the services of the an Information Technologist to aid decode the INEC database – and thus the smart card reader. He stated that he had indicated interest in performing the task for the PDP. According to him, he made a presentation of how the smart card reader could be reconfigured and rendered ‘useless’. He claimed that the PDP turned his offer down after he had already ‘gained partial access’. He added that the PDP had opted for the services of foreign professionals – who he claimed where trained by a Tel Aviv firm by name, FireEye. Deji continued that the smart card readers were comparable to ‘point of sale’ terminal. “If they had mobilized me, I would have decoded it”. Deji was formerly employed by Nuhu Ribadu presidential campaign team.
The INEC has however discarded that efforts by the political groups as fruitless. In talking to 247ureports.com the spokesperson for INEC, Kayode Idowu discarded the efforts as mere conspiracy theories.
“We hear all manners of conspiracy theories. You can’t stop people from trying but you can guarantee that they will fail”. Similar notion was expressed by members of the Senate. One of the Senators who shared his view, Senator Abaribe [Abia] recalled that “Prof Jega came to the Senate and assured that the INEC servers are hack proof”.
But an IT expert who is an associate at Eli Research [Burt Regan] – a world renowned IT consultancy firm – faulted the assertion by the INEC that their systems were hack proof. In his take, “no such thing as a server that is hacker proof. It can only be made difficult to hack. The INEC server can be easily hacked. The defense department server of the United States was hacked by an individual – what is INEC server?”
The SSS declined to make an official statement when contacted. But they noted that they were “not asleep”. Unofficially, one of the directors indicated that “the activities of both parties are being monitored”..
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