The tech expert said that while he has a solution on how to fix the issue, it seemed as if the ministry was not buying into his idea as he had sent repeated letters to the office of the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, through his lawyers, his company and himself, to draw the attention of the minister to the issue but no any action had been taken to address the issue.
A tech expert and software engineer, Jackmay Confidence, has raised an alarm that millions of Nigerians on the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) database are exposed to impersonation on the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) passport portal.
Speaking with SaharaReporters, Confidence said that while great work has been done on the NIS passport portal, the issue he has identified is that any random individual around the world can easily breach Nigerians’ personal information in the state registry and impersonate anyone for a passport, simply with the person’s National Identity Number (NIN) and date of birth.
The tech expert said that while he has a solution on how to fix the issue, it seemed as if the ministry was not buying into his idea as he had sent repeated letters to the office of the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, through his lawyers, his company and himself, to draw the attention of the minister to the issue but no any action had been taken to address the issue.
He further noted that he reached out to the appropriate government agencies including the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on January 12, over the issue but no action had been taken to rectify the identified issue.
He said, “It is a serious issue concerning the Nigerian International Passport application portal, released by the Minister of Interior, Tunji-Ojo on January 9, 2024.
“While the initiative is noble, the execution has been abysmal. Since the portal's release, millions of Nigerians in the NIMC database have been exposed to impersonation, and any random individual around the world can easily breach your personal information in the state registry and impersonate you for an international passport with just your NIN and date of birth.
“I raised the alarm with the appropriate government agencies (NDPC and NITDA) about this security breach on the 12th of January.
“However, this portal is still live today. I have sent repeated letters to the Minister's office, through my lawyers, company, and myself, to draw their attention to their actions, but they have not taken any action to address this issue.
“I run a tech company and the tech company is what I was providing a solution to help fix the problem which was found on the passport portal. The problem on the NIS portal is authentication and the first thing I did was to go to the minister to disclose the problem and the solution.
“Unfortunately, he did not take the initiative. Probably he felt what they already had was what was working.
“We need to ensure that this problem does not repeat itself and that Nigerians' personal information is protected from being exposed to impersonation.”
When contacted, Alao Babatunde, an aide to the Minister of Interior, said that even though the tech expert might have written to the minister, it was possible that the minister might not have received his letter, hence, he advised the expert (Confidence) to approach him (Babatunde) directly to discuss his findings and the solution he has.
“It is normal for people to have concerns about one thing or the other because everyone wants the best for the country. It is when you come around that we will be able to discuss and come up with solutions. It is about us as a people.
“I will appreciate it if he can reach out to me. We will work out a way, not just with the minister but also to engage people in the technical part. He is speaking as a concerned Nigerian who does not want the security of the people and the country to be breached. If he can reach out, we can talk about it,” he said.