Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday admitted a breach of its website by suspected hackers, stirring concerns about the safety —or lack thereof– of the nation’s public data.
The bureau advised the public to ignore any information that might emanate from the website until the site is completely recovered from hackers.
The NBS posted, “This is to inform the public that the NBS Website has been hacked and we are working to recover it. Please disregard any message or report posted until the website is fully restored.”
Read also: Serengeti strikes: 1,000+ nabbed in cybercrime crackdown
Data breach of Nigeria’s public institutions
This incident represents Nigeria’s third significant data breach in 2024 involving government data.
Other important websites that were reportedly breached this year include the database of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), where personal information was purportedly sold for about ₦190 (13 cents) on a website called Anyverify.
In September, FIJ reported that an unidentified hacker had also taken over the “IPPIS Payroll Validation” portion of the Office of the Accountant-General’s official website.
The regularity of these intrusions emphasises how susceptible Nigeria’s digital infrastructure is and how easily private citizen information could end up in the wrong hands.
Read also: Nigeria hails Google, Microsoft, TikTok, X for N2.55 trillion tax contributions in H1 2024
About National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)
In Nigeria, the NBS is the main organisation in charge of gathering, analysing, and disseminating statistics data.
The Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Report Q3 2024, which gives an update on Nigeria’s economic growth and performance, the Nigeria Labour Force Survey (NLFS) report for Q2 2024, which provides insights into Nigeria’s labour market, including employment and unemployment rates, and the Consumer Price Index November 2024, which gives the most recent data on Nigeria’s inflation rate, are just a few of the important reports that the statistics office has recently released.
The NBS reported in November that in the third quarter of 2024, Nigeria’s GDP rose 3.46 percent in real terms year over year.