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Nigeria secret police secrets leaked on Internet

Dunya News

Nigeria's top domestic spy agency data has been leaked on to the internet.

Personnel records of former and current members of Nigerias top domestic spy agency, including home addresses and names of immediate family members, leaked onto the Internet in a threatening message that claimed to come from a radical Islamist sect thats killed hundreds of people this year alone, The Associated Press has learned.The leak of personal data of more than 60 past and current employees of Nigerias State Security Service remained easily accessible on the Internet for days and had details about the agencys director-general, including his mobile phone number, bank account particulars and contact information for his son.Many of agents listed who could be reached by the AP said they received no official warning from the spy agency that their information had been posted online nor been otherwise alerted.The material has been deleted from the comment section of a website, but the security breach astonished veterans and calls into question whether Nigerias intelligence community, whose agents already have released suspected terrorists out of religious and ethnic sympathies, are too compromised from within to stop the violence now plaguing Africas most populous nation.This is a national embarrassment, said one Nigerian intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as information about the leak was not to have been made public.Marilyn Ogar, a spokeswoman for the State Security Service, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday about the leak.The State Security Service, created in 1986 by then-military ruler Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, monitors domestic dissent in Nigeria, an oil-rich nation of more than 160 million people. Though geared toward stopping terrorism and destabilizing coups, the agency routinely faces criticism for targeting government critics.Many agents for the typically secretive agency are preoccupied with concealing their identities, as most try to blend unnoticed into society.The information leak came in two postings earlier this month on a website that provides rewritten news on Nigeria.Though the comments have been removed, the AP is not identifying the website involved as cached versions of the comments remain online and intelligence service agents have been killed by Boko Haram members in the past.The list includes former and current agents across the country, including Director-General Ekpeyong Ita. Those reached by the AP who were willing to talk expressed disbelief that sensitive information like that could make its way to the Internet.Some of those contacted suggested that the list appeared to come from the agencys pension department, as it mostly included retirees and listed bank account information for nearly all those named.Most of those on the leaked list of agents reached by the AP said no one from the federal government or the spy agency warned them that their personnel information had appeared on the Internet. Instead, colleagues and other former agents called each other to spread the news and later contacted the State Security Service themselves to report the breach.It is unclear if the person who posted the information online really does have ties to Boko Haram, which has targeted security officials in the past.