FG set to impose NIN-SIM rule, implores citizens to complete linkage in days – Nexus News
Although the extension for citizens to link their National Identification Numbers (NINs) to Subscriber Identification Modules (SIMs) cards ended yesterday, the Federal Government has, nevertheless, implored citizens to finish the linkage in the next few days.
The advice was inscribed in a press release signed yesterday, by the Director, Public Affairs, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, and Head, Corporate Communications, National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), Kayode Adegoke.
The statement reads: “The general public would recall that the Federal Government approved an extension of the NIN-SIM linkage deadline to March 31, 2022.
“In preparation for the enforcement, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) urges citizens and legal residents to use the next few days to ensure that they complete the linkage.
“To this end, the minister has further directed that the NIMC should offer enrolment services round the clock for the next few days. Prof. Pantami also thanks all those who have completed their NIN-SIM linkage.”
The Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, and Director-General/CEO of NIMC, Aliyu Aziz, implored citizens and legal residents to use the opportunity of the window to complete the process.
It was reported yesterday that as at March 21, NIMC issued 77.1 million NINs in the country. Of the number, Nigerian males were 43.3 million, while the female folks had 33.7 million NINs.
Regional registrations revealed that Lagos led with 8.89 million. Kano had 6.3 million; Kaduna, 4.5 million; Ogun, 3.14 million; Oyo, 3.13 million; Abuja, 2.88 million; Rivers, 2.35 million; Katsina, 2.34 million; Delta, 2.12 million and Borno, 1.99 million.
Also, the Computer Security Incidents Response Team (CSIRT), established by the NCC for the telecoms sector, has revealed two new cyber threats targeting Windows platforms and a particular kind of routers.
The discoveries were included in two separate advisories released by the cyberspace protection team.
NCC, in another press release, yesterday, by its spokesman, Adinde, stated that the first cyber threat “is a ransomware known as ‘LokiLocker’ capable of deleting data from Windows systems or platforms.
It causes data loss and denial of service (DoS), as well as limits user’s productivity.
The virus works by encrypting user files and renders the compromised system useless if the victim does not pay the required ransom in time.
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NCC stated that to hide the spiteful activity, the ransomware showed a fake window update screen, terminated specific processes and services, and totally disables the task manager, windows error reporting, machine firewall and windows defender of the compromised system.
Sadly, it also has in-built processes that averts data recovery as it removes backup files, shadow copies, and gets rid of system restore points. It also overwrites the user login note and modifies original equipment manufacturer (OEM) information in the registry of the compromised system.
The second cyber threat uncovered by the NCC CSIRT is a Botnet that aims at the Mikrotik version of routers. As CSIRT disclosed, thousands of routers from Mikrotik which have been found to be defenseless are being used to create what has been called one of the largest botnets in history
This botnet exploits an already-known vulnerability, which permits unauthenticated remote attackers to view arbitrary files and authenticated remote attackers to write arbitrary files, due to a directory traversal vulnerability in the WinBox interface. The vulnerability which was formerly fixed permitted the perpetrators to enslave all the routers and then rent them out as a service.
In line with new research published by Avast, a cryptocurrency mining campaign taking advantage of the newly disrupted Glupteba botnet, as well as the famed Trickbot malicious software were revealed to have been disseminated by the very same command-and-control (C2) server. The C2 server functions as botnet-as-a-service, which controls almost 230,000 vulnerable MikroTik routers.
