Kidnappers

By Sulaiman Badamasi (Mahir)

Social engineering (also known as human hacking) is the art of psychological manipulation of human beings to trick them into making privacy blunders to giving out delicate confidential information. The perpetrator (social engineer) digs background information of the potential victim to identify key necessary weak points and possibly gain the victim’s trust to use the information against them. Before the emergence of social media, it took social engineers a long, frustrating time to acquire as much information as possible about their targets.

However, the dawn of technology saw the 21^st century as the swiftest ever in terms of information circulation. The world has appeared at a height where a single tweet (for example) reaches a billion people in seconds. Thus, information runs fast, businesses nurture, distances diminish, causes foster, coverage enlarges, relationships are created/strengthened, thus making us and our lifestyles more publicized and learned about.

Despite its tremendous impact on making life more relaxed, social media compels us to unconsciously reveal vital personal information about ourselves, families, friends, etc., which could be easily used against us. In other words, what you need to know about people to trigger any havoc on them and their close ones is almost certainly on social media. People’s personal info has become so plentiful that they have a copy of their voter card, national ID card, and driver’s license posted on social media.

Moreover, people reveal their workplaces, positions, type and colour of their vehicles, wives and children (by number, names & faces), schools where their children attend (including class, level, course, location), the colour of their children’s uniforms, favourite food, the interior of their rooms, the kind of electronic devices they own/use, current location, movement plans and means of transportation (motorcycle, car, truck, train, plane) with picture evidence. You know when they sleep/wake, to mention a few.

The recent #KanuTrain attack is a decent scenario of how our personal information can be used against us. The intruders appeared to have readily gathered background details of some of the passengers, including their sitting positions on the train and their social profiles. In a video interview, the killer of Hanifa, the primary school pupil who was allegedly abducted and murdered by her teacher, explained how he took his time, gathered adequate information, and built up his fraternity before executing the unfortunate assault.

The fact is, no ill group/individual strategizes and carries out a successful attack devoid of having sufficient information, which of course, we give generously. Without data, plans go wrong, and they (perpetrators) hardly take these risks nowadays. Repeated evidence has struck our screens on how ill-doers use human informants, drones, and social media accounts to gather information about target victims before carrying out attacks on them, including military bases.

Ethical hackers do not just attack or penetrate internet environments or webservers. Instead, they do footprinting and reconnaissance to know the strengths and identify weaknesses in the system they plan to attack and then exploit them.

Have you ever wondered how your profile pictures can be grilled to reveal more information about you? We often change profile pictures on several occasions. Let us assume you have been on Facebook for ten years and have changed your profile picture ten times (once each year). These ten naturally varying images can be processed using deep learning and natural language processing to understand, for instance, the rate at which you are ageing, how happy/angry/suspicious/innocent you are looking, how healthy or otherwise, to mention a few.

A 30-minute walkthrough of the pictures you have uploaded in the last five years reveals what calibre of people you do mingle with, the state of structure your house is in, the number of countries, states, or towns you have visited, conferences you have attended, how beautiful your wife looks like, which of your siblings/parents/children you love the most, and more. Do you know that a data scientist who knows where you have been going for one year or less can use that data to predict where you will possibly be going next?

All these can be used to perpetrate evils against you/us, thus, informing a possible abductor/kidnapper whether you look like someone who/whose family can afford a ransom payment. Knowing a lot about your family tells them of the softer target amongst them. Of course, they would find it easier to abduct that daughter of yours whose school name, picture, name, age, the colour of the uniform, time to and from school you have made available than you.

Unless we have underlying valid reasons to do so, making our private information and our families public could make them more vulnerable to unnecessary access. Life now looks as if the more your sensitive information is made private, the less you are prone to some unfortunate events.

So, beware!

Sulaiman Badamasi (Mahir) can be reached via sulaimanmahir@gmail.com.

By Uzair Adam Imam 

Bandits have shot ASCII Muhammad Maradun, a Customs officer with Federal Operations Unit (FOU), to death in Kaduna.

The Daily Reality gathered that six people, among whom was a bride-to-be, were abducted in the process. 

It has been discovered that the bandits had stormed his house at Rogachikun Community of Igabi local government, Kaduna, in the early hours of Wednesday.

The deceased, Mr Maradun, was reported to have sustained gunshot injuries.

The FOU Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO), M.A Magaji, confirmed the victim’s death.

However, the deceased was said to have died while undergoing surgery, putting all attempts to save his life in vain.

By Muhammad Sabiu

On Wednesday, shooters suspected of being kidnappers abducted 22 people and injured four others in Idon, Kajuru Local Government Area, Kaduna State.

Mr. Aboki Danjuma, a resident of the Idon community, said the criminals arrived around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday and started shooting sporadically.

Justina Joseph, Mary Joseph, Rejoice Joseph, Stephen Joseph, Samson Ladan, Christiana David, Boniface David, Helen Aminu, Mirabel Aminu, Precious Philemon, Nelson Philemon, and Christian Philemon were among those taken away by the bandits, according to a councillor in the Kajuru Local Government Area of the State, Bala Jonathan.

Yosi Gabriel, Stephen Clement, Jinkai Musa, Derrick Obadiah, Daniel David, Paul David, Istifanus Peter, Miracle Matthew, Jesse Charles, and Favour Daniel are among the other names on the list.

According to him, David Maigaya, Micah Musa, Josephine Matthew, and Marshall Musa were the four injured people.

Since the time of posting this story, ASP Mohammed Jalige, the Kaduna Police Public Relations Officer, has yet to confirm the killings.

By MMuhammad Sabiu

Suspected bandits kidnapped an unknown number of traders from Birnin Gwari Local Government in Kaduna State on Wednesday.

According to a witness, the gunmen blocked the roadway between Birnin Gwari and Kaduna at Unguwar Yako bush, where the traders were taken.

According to the source, the abducted people were among dozens of people travelling on business from Birnin Gwari and nearby areas in Niger State to Kano.

The source was quoted as saying, “We were travelling in a convoy with security escorts but they (bandits) abducted those who moved ahead of the convoy, which made them easy preys for the bandits.“We came and met about four empty vehicles, while seeing the bandits moving into the forest with the captives.

The soldiers are tracing them, we are stranded at a dangerous spot in the forest (Unguwar Yako) while the security escorts are chasing to rescue the abducted traders.”

As of the time of filing this report, police in Kaduna have not released an official statement on the incident.

By Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani

Various reports revealed that US senators are planning to halt the agreed sales of warplanes to the Federal Republic of Nigeria on human rights concerns. This unpopular decision leaves many Nigerians in awe, wondering why would the so-called peace-loving United States do that to a nation bedevilled by security challenges, ranging from violent secessionists, killer herdsmen, banditry, kidnapping and Boko Haram — an insurgency that consumes more than 36,000 lives from 2009 to date. 

The number one enemy of Nigeria is insecurity, as the country’s security agencies are having difficulty in surmounting the problem over the years. No doubt, the government of the federation is trying everything humanly possible to end the ugly trend. However, the challenge continues to prove insurmountable, mainly due to the lack of state-of-art weaponry in the country’s arsenal. Understanding this particular shortcoming forces the Buhari administration to shop for sophisticated armouries from the United States of America – a perceived important ally of the Nigerian state. Unfortunately, the bilateral relationship that exists for decades between the US and Nigeria that is expected to play a significant role in facilitating the arms deals and intelligence sharing has been disregarded by these US senators.

Suffice to say; this is not the first time the US turns down Nigeria’s demand for war gadgets on the purported account of human rights records. Denying Nigeria’s request during the Jonathan administration was undoubtedly one of the significant factors that made Nigerian forces deficient in combating Boko Haram, hence leaving the insurgency to prevail then. Now we are faced with many other terrorist acts; we cannot afford to experience the repetition of what happened before. Therefore, to accomplish this task of securing the territorial integrity of our nation, we must think outside the box and source alternatives to acquire sophisticated war gadgets that would help us eliminate terrorists and terrorism in the African most populace nation.

Ostensibly, America is not helping matters in our war against insurgency. No good ally would deny Nigeria a purchase of weapons at this challenging moment of turmoil. As a matter of urgency, the federal government should leave America and shop for the needed warplanes elsewhere. We can try the likes of Russia, China, Japan, South Korea or Germany to have expeditious delivery and usage because they are best with sophisticated ware fare all over the world.  

It’s high time for Nigeria and Africa to realise that some Western countries are not interested or concerned about our peaceful coexistence. It’s, therefore, significant to give priority to research and development to find ways to save ourselves from such last hour denials. Relying on the US to help us address the multiple security challenges in Nigeria and Africa is becoming suicidal. We must find some better allies that would be ever willing to help us out of any predicament unconditionally.

Tajuddeen Ahmad Tijjani writes from Galadima Mahmud Street K/Kaji Azare, Bauchi State.

By Muhammadu Sabiu

A suspected bandit operating in northwest Nigeria, Bello Galadima, has on Tuesday been apprehended by men of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Sokoto.

This was confirmed by Hamza Illela, spokesperson of the corps in the state.

Mr Illela was quoted as saying, “The corps at about 0600hrs yesterday, Tuesday, arrested a wanted notorious bandit following intelligence on his activities and movement from the members of Hamma Ali community.

“The command directed its intelligence team to liaise with the arms squad unit to track and arrest him.”

The suspected bandit was reported to have been arrested around the Aliyu Jodi area.

Sokoto State is one of the northwestern states badly hit by bandits and kidnappers despite the fact that security personnel are making efforts to curb the vices.

The traditional ruler of Jaba, the Kpop Ham of Jaba Chiefdom in Kaduna State, Jonathan Danladi Gyet Maude, has been abducted by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers.

The brother of the kidnapped monarch, Anthony Maude, has confirmed the development. He said the victim was kidnapped on his farm located at Gitata community in Nasarawa State.

Kpop Ham Jonathan Danladi Gyet Maude is among the first-class monarchs in Kaduna State.

By Muhammad Sabiu

Some 28 out of the 121 kidnapped Bethel Baptist Secondary School students have on Sunday regained their freedom after being held for weeks in captivity.

Recall that the students were on July 8 abducted at their school premises in Chikum Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

A report by Tribune newspaper has indicated that this development was confirmed by the Chairman of the Kaduna chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Joseph Hayab. He added that the students would be reunited with their families.

Although the abductors of the students demanded the sum of M60 million as ransom, it remains unknown whether or not the money was paid before the release of some of the students. Kidnapping and killings have become a quotidian threat in northwest Nigeria despite the efforts made by security agents to curb the problems.