NPC Denies Reports its Server Was Hacked Before Census Postponement

The National Population Commission (NPC) has dismissed a report from one of its staff, Sanusi Maigida, that the commission server was hacked ahead of the 2023 population census.

Maigida alleged that the commission’s server was hacked, citing this development as the reason for the postponement of the Local Government Area (LGA)-level training of the supervisors and enumerators for the 2023 Population and Housing Census.

However, NPC spokesperson, Isiaka Yahaya, dismissed Maigida’s report as false in a statement on Monday, stating that the server is intact and ready to be deployed for the upcoming 2023 Population and Housing Census exercise.

Yahaya described Maigida as an “uninformed staff” who had limited knowledge about the NPC server or its workability.

“The statement made by Sanusi Maigida is totally false and does not represent the true position of things as regards the Commission’s server and the reason for the postponement of LGA-level training of the functionaries,” Yahaya said.

He stated that Maigida acted without directive or authorisation from the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja and is currently facing disciplinary action for the misinformation.

Yahaya, however, assured the public that the security of the data for the 2023 Population and Housing Census is guaranteed, noting that the commission is committed to upholding the highest standards of data protection and maintaining the trust placed in us by the Nigerian population.

He added that as part of measures to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data for the 2023 Census, the commission has implemented comprehensive security measures to safeguard its servers, applications, and IT infrastructure.

“We deployed state-of-the-art technologies and industry best practices to protect our systems from potential security threats.

“These security measures include robust firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, regular security audits, encryption protocols, and multi-factor authentication for privileged accounts.”

“We have also implemented strict access controls and user privileges and conducted continuous monitoring of our systems to detect and mitigate any potential vulnerabilities or incidents in real time.”

Yahaya, however, urged the public to disregard the false statement trending online about the hacking of the Commission’s server and the subsequent travel of the NPC Chairman to restore the purportedly hacked server.