Cyber terrorists may disrupt 2019 polls, says NITDA

Isa Pantami, director general, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has said the 2019 general elections may be disrupted if adequate information technology security measures were not put in place.

He raised the alarm at the 10th annual conference organised by Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) in Abuja.

Pantami said terrorists may disrupt the national elections by hacking into the voter registration database of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“If proper IT security measures are not put in place, terrorists may disrupt the national elections by hacking into the INEC voter register database; they can disrupt the banking system by hacking into and taking over the Bank Verification Number (BVN) platform.

“They can critically disrupt the national economy by cyber-jacking the Treasury Single Account (TSA) software, and so on,” he said.

He, however, said the agency was developing a Nigerian government enterprise architecture dedicated to securing the country’s information technology systems.

“NITDA is developing a Nigerian Government Enterprise Architecture and a critical part of it was dedicated to the security of Information Technology systems.

“This section specifies what security measures should be in place while deploying IT systems in Public Institutions,” he added.