2023 census: Our server not hacked— NPC

Ahead of the 2023 Population and Housing Census, the National Population Commission (NPC) on Monday denied claims that its server was hacked.

It said the “misleading” information was made by one Mr. Sanusi Maigida, an uninformed staff of the Commission and Comptroller of Chanchaga LGA in Niger State who has cited this development as reason for the postponement of the LGA-level training of the Supervisors and Enumerators.

In a statement issued by the Director, Public Affairs Department, Dr Isiaka Yahaya, the Commission said the statement made by Mr. Sanusi Maigida was 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.

“As a staff in the LGA Office of the NPC, Mr. Maigida has limited knowledge about the NPC server or its workability. He acted without directive and authorization from the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja and is currently facing disciplinary action for such embarrassing misinformation.

“For record purposes, the Commission wishes to state that its server is solidly intact and ready to be deployed for the upcoming 2023 Population and Housing Census exercise,” it said.

It said as part of measures to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of data for the 2023 Census, it 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 multifactor 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,” the statement read in part.