Government, NIRA is under fire for ‘data breaches’

Government, NIRA is under fire for ‘data breaches’

Experts have warned that the absence of either a recovery or backup center could cost the country considerably, which has brought the national register back into the spotlight.

The German company that built the National Security Information Systems (NSIS) infrastructure, which is used to create national identity (ID) cards, stated this week that it was not charged with installing a backup system.

Matthias Karl Kohler, vice president of Mühlbauer High Tech International, said to the House Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs that when the firm signed a deal with the government in 2010, establishing a backup system was not part of our contract.

The head of the House committee, Ms. Rosemary Nyakikongoro, called the situation “extremely perilous,” adding that Ugandans had every right to feel short-changed considering all of the “information and money that has gone into the exercise” of establishing an NSIS. In light of this, Ms. Nyakikongoro called a meeting of the committee and invited the top officials of the National Identification Registration Authority (Nira), its overseer, the Internal Affairs ministry, and the line minister, Gen. Kahinda Otafiire.

The weaknesses of Uganda’s NSIS were recently exposed following a cyberattack that left Airtel Mobile Commerce Uganda Limited (AMCUL) looking at an Sh7.6 billion black hole in addition to the obvious and present risk of data loss. The hack was accessed through a legal betting company.