DSS accuses APC of plot to hack INEC server

The Department of State Services, DSS, said it had uncovered plots by the All Progressives Congress, APC, to hack into the websites of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and media houses in the country.

The Service also said that it discovered lists containing names and photographs of security personnel, foreigners and under-aged on the registered members’ list of the party.
The DSS addressed a press conference in Abuja to present the result of its investigation into alleged activities of the APC to sabotage the electoral process after a raid on the party’s data office last year. Deputy Director, Public Relations of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar at the briefing recalled that on November 22 last year,

the Service raided No. 10, Bola Ajibola Street, Ikeja, Lagos, during which items including a temporary Voters Card and a Permanent Voters Card were allegedly discovered.

Also, one of the hard drives recovered from the building allegedly contained a video of 21 hacking tutorials.
“The tutorial video focused on the following areas; how to become a hacker and steps to take to avoid detection in the process of hacking web servers; steps and procedures of system hacking, passwords cracking, decrypting, escalating access privileges, and creating backdoors to servers.

“It also explicitly explained how to evade security of databases such as Intrusion Detection Systems, IDS, firewalls and other measures put in place to deter hackers.
“The video outlined ways to identify vulnerabilities in systems and how to surreptitiously drop a USB flash drive in a target establishment, which when plugged into any computer, transmits malicious codes enough to gain access into and compromise the entire system of the target organisation and “Finally, the video explains how to hack into the systems of media houses, with the aim of broadcasting fake stories or headlines,” Ogar said
According to her, in the course of investigation, it was discovered that the APC registered several security personnel from the Nigerian Army, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, the Federal Road Safety Corps and a host of others “in their uniforms as members of the party.”
She noted that membership of political parties by security personnel could serve a death-knell for democracy, stating that security operatives are statutesbarred from being partisan.
She said the identities of the personnel have been forwarded to their various agencies and that the onus is now on those agencies to conduct in-house investigations and mete out appropriate sanctions where a deliberate misdemeanor is established against such personnel.

The DSS, which displayed all the exhibits it recovered from the building, said it was also discovered that the APC registered under-aged persons “including several infants and babies as members.”
According to Ogar, Article 9.1 of the APC Constitution expressly states that, “membership of the party shall be open to any citizen of Nigeria who has attained the age of 18 years and accepts the aims and objectives of the Party…”

While she said many in the intelligence communit
y had expressed worries when the party decided to adopt INEC’s registration points as its own membership registration points, Ogar said the APC also had registrations of individuals in multiples of 16, 12 and 10 while several foreigners were also registered as its members.
Also, the APC allegedly filled forms without passport photographs, and have books containing names of people with their phone numbers.

Equally discovered were several envelopes containing passport photographs of various individuals.
“From the foregoing, we suspect that there was an elaborate and well-articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country,” Ogar submitted.
She equally said the APC intended to hack into the web-portals of media houses in order to disseminate fake news reports to Nigerians.

Ogar said contrary to the free opinions variously expressed by the party’s Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed “and a number of uninformed members of the public on the action of the Service, truth remain sacred and sacrosanct.”
“Even in a democracy, free opinion, an opposite of truth, must be separated completely and cannot enjoy the same latitude,” Ogar said.

She recalled how the DSS had received actionable intelligence that the Ikeja building was being used for cloning of Permanent Voter Cards by some people “with intent to hack into the INEC database, corrupt it and replace same with their own data.

She said upon receiving the report, the Service immediately took appropriate steps to investigate same by first seeking and obtaining a search warrant as required by law.
“This is contrary to claims by the APC, that the building was accessed illegally. On arriving at the building, officers of this Service found that the building did not have the signpost, banner or flag of any company or political party, she added.

But APC has dismissed as hogwash the DSS allegations.
It said that the ‘findings’ presented to the media is a great disservice to Nigeria and an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organisations around the world.
In a statement issued in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also described the timing of the release of the ‘findings’ as a plot orchestrated in collusion with the PDP to distract the APC from its ongoing campaigns for next month’s elections.

It described as disingenuous, flimsy, premeditated, partisan and an irritant the conclusion that the APC had an “articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country.

“First the DSS and the PDP said the APC was cloning Permanent Voters Cards at the raided office, without a shred of evidence. Now, after a ‘painstaking’ investigation, the DSS has found out that the APC was only planning to inflate its membership data and then hack into INEC’s database. And this is the outcome of its massive, months-long investigations?
“This would have been funny if it were not from a primary domestic intelligence agency saddled with a great responsibility.

“Can this wishy-washy report stand any serious scrutiny? Can any serious intelligence gathering agency anywhere else in the world take this report seriously?
“With these kinds of findings, one can now understand why Boko Haram has continued to strike at times and places of its own choosing without any prior knowledge by our all-powerful DSS.
“Even the presentation of the report by a poorlytrained and highly-politicised spokesperson of the DSS worsened the so-called findings.

“Why would the spokesperson of a national agency sound like a megaphone for the ruling party, freely castigating the opposition spokesman and ‘a number of uninformed members of the public?’ Why does she have to go personal in presenting a report that supposedly is in the national interest?
“We have always warned that our democracy is in clear and present danger, not just from desperate politicians, but also from institutions of state that have compromised in their roles and resorted to crass lawlessness.

:The DSS’ ‘findings’ today (yesterday) have given us another reason to repeat this warning.
“While we are willing to meet the DSS in court, we can confidently say that the ‘confessions’ extracted from the arrested persons, after they were subjected to incredible acts of torture, cannot even stand in any court of law,” APC said.

The party recalled that in its statement of December 5th 2014, it accused the DSS of resorting to the use of torture to obtain forced confessions from those who were arrested during the first raid on the party’s Ikeja Data Centre.

“In that statement, we called the action of the DSS to the UN Convention against torture to which Nigeria is a signatory and a violation of the citizens’ fundamental human rights.
“We also said the DSS shackled the hands and legs of those arrested and blindfolded them while they were being taken to Abuja. The arrested persons remained in chains even at the dark detention cell where they were made to sleep on the bare floor for the 10 days they were detained illegally.

“Guns were pointed at their heads by DSS personnel who threatened to shoot them, while a pregnant woman among those who were arrested was denied access to her drugs even when she started bleeding due to the torture to which she was subjected by the DSS.

“Now the DSS has confirmed what we said in that press statement. Is anyone still surprised at the action of countries that are distancing themselves from Nigeria over human rights violations? it queried.

APC said the impending release of the ‘great findings’ by the DSS after its world class investigations must have been the reason why the agency recently threatened it would arrest any politician who makes inciting comments, adding: “Apparently the DSS needed to silence all so that no one will dare criticise its earthshaking findings.’”