The Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force attached to the National Cybercrime Centre, NCC have apprehended Eight members of a syndicate behind several unauthorised identity verification platforms that illegally harvested Nigerians’ personal information under the guise of accessing the National Identity Management Commission , NIMC database.
Addressing a joint press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, Deputy Force Spokesman, Victor Isuku, disclosed that the cybercrime centre deployed advanced digital forensic techniques to trace the culprits and their illicit domains.
The Deputy Force Public Relations Officer DFPRO pointed out that the
operation, carried out by the National Cybercrime Centre followed a petition by the NIMC Director-General, Abisoye Coker-Odusote, over the unlawful distribution and commercialisation of Nigerians’ personally identifiable information.
According to him, “the Nigerian police force national cyber crime centre was able to achieve these great feats through the use of digital forensic techniques which aided in identifying these threat actors and domains involved in this unlawful sale and verification of NIN linked PPI that is personally identifiable information.
“The actors behind this heinous act were Hamzat Lukman and Babalola Tolani Suleiman, arrested in Kwara and Lagos States respectively. Lukman, a software developer, created and hosted the domain goverify.com.ng on behalf of Suleiman for commercial verification purposes. He also hosted three other domains for the same purpose,” Isuku explained.
He explained that further investigations led to the arrest of other collaborators, including Nura Bello and Ibrahim Abubakar, who was linked to idfinders.com.ng.
“Other arrested suspects are Shoara Kehinde , Abubakar Amisu, Abdullahi Salisu, and Ashiru Sanni.
“Meanwhile other domains used to perpetrate this cyber intrusion include verifymyNIN.com triplus.ng goverify.com.ng idfinder.com.ng verifyforme.com.ng subpoint.com.ng verify.datashop.com.ng championtech.com.ng anyverify.com.ng cremetech.com.ng nickverify.humanity.com.ng, inventor.com.ng, “he added.
The DFPRO further explained that efforts have been intensified to apprehend other shadow perpetrators who engage in illegal distribution commercialisation and unlawful access to government databases and dismantle syndicates responsible for carrying out cyber related crimes and offences.
He added that the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun through the cybercrime unit, was committed to dismantling criminal syndicates targeting critical national infrastructure.
According to him, “the IGP has given has again reaffirmed the commitment of the police force under its able leadership to combating all forms of cyber crimes as well as safeguarding national digital assets reinforcing data privacy and protecting the integrity of citizens identification data thank you very much
“This operation is a milestone for the Police, for NIMC, and for Nigeria. We remain committed to safeguarding national digital assets, reinforcing data privacy, and protecting the integrity of citizens’ identification data,” Isuku said.
In his remarks, Director of the NPF-NCCC, CP Ifenayi Uche clarified that contrary to widespread fears, the NIMC database itself was never breached.
According to him,“when the case was reported, we conducted vulnerability assessments and penetration tests. We confirmed there were no breaches in the NIMC system. What we uncovered was the existence of third parties who created phishing links that mimicked NIMC’s website to harvest Nigerians’ personal data for commercial purposes,” he said.
He added that the suspects had built their own parallel databases with stolen information, which they then sold to unsuspecting clients.
The CP further explained that 13 out of 14 fraudulent domains identified in the operation have been successfully taken down.
According to him, “out of the 14 domains that were reported by by NIMC, we’ve