2023: Again, INEC reassures Nigerians of BVAS security, says system cannot be hacked

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has assured Nigerians that the Bimodal Accreditation System (BVAS) won’t be compromised during the general elections in 2023.

Dr. Lawrence Bayode, the Deputy Director of ICT, INEC, revealed this on Wednesday, in response to inquiries about the BVAS’s safety, on Sunrise Daily. Channels TV program.

The election commission, according to Bayode, had addressed all BVAS surface attack vulnerabilities.

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; and 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; like, as I said earlier, you cannot build such a system, and you won’t fortify the system to solidify it.”

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He added, “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. And I can say again that BVAS cannot be compromised.”

Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters – using the voters’ fingerprints – in order to prove that they are eligible to vote at a particular polling unit.

BVAS usage entails either scanning the barcode/QR code on the PVC/Voter’s register or entering the last six digits of the Voter Identity Number or typing in the last name of the voter by the Assistant Presiding Officer (APO 1) to verify and authenticate the voter.

BVAS also acts as the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) during voter registration. Its usage has also eliminated the use of incident forms during accreditation on an election day.

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