The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has insisted that data on the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) will not be compromised, thus allaying fears over its security.
The assurance was given earlier today by INEC’s Deputy Head of ICT, Lawrence Bayode while speaking on a Channels Television program Sunrise Daily.
Bayode maintained that the system will not be hacked on election day, even though he admitted that some people might try to. According to him, any possible surface attack on the BVAS has been taken care of.
All loopholes tightened: According to Bayode, the electoral body has tightened every loose end toward ensuring that the BVAS is safe. He said:
- “I want to say again that we have done everything to ensure that the BVAS is not compromised. The data on the BVAS will be secured. After the poll, when the data is transmitted to our backend server, the data in transit will be secured. By the time the data gets to our backend server, the data will also be secured there.”
- “We have looked at the machine, and we looked at a lot of things. As I said earlier, you cannot build such a system and not fortify it. Whether we like it or not, people will try a lot to beat this system. But the more they try, the more they meet a brick wall.
- “I can say categorically that we have taken care of every surface attack vulnerability on this system. And we have also tried our best to ensure that the system cannot be hacked into on election day. I can say again that BVAS cannot be compromised. When fingerprints fail, it turns to the face, and when both fail, you can’t vote.’’
What you should know: Recall that INEC had earlier reassured Nigerians in October that there is no plan to discard the use of BVAS and the electronic transmission of results.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, said the commission is determined to deploy the BVAS technology for a free, fair, credible, and transparent election.
Editing by Emmanuel Abara Benson