2027: Atiku Raises Alarm Over Outdated BVAS Operating System

2027: Atiku Raises Alarm Over Outdated BVAS Operating System
He called for an independent audit of the election technology.
Atiku urged INEC to address the concerns before the 2027 elections.

Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, Atiku Abubakar, has warned that the continued use of an outdated operating system on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System could expose the 2027 general elections to cyberattacks and manipulation.

Atiku raised the concern in a statement issued by his media office in Abuja on Tuesday, following technical failures recorded during the mock accreditation exercise conducted in Osun State on August 1.

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that the former Vice President also cited a statement reportedly made by the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Director of ICT, Dr Lawrence Bayode, during an interview on Arise TV.

According to Atiku, Bayode disclosed that the BVAS, which was first deployed in 2021, was still operating on Android version 10.

Android 10 reached end of life in 2023 and no longer receives security updates.

Atiku said the continued use of the obsolete operating system on a critical election technology platform posed “severe cyber and operational risks.”

He questioned why INEC, despite its substantial budget, had not upgraded the software ahead of the 2027 elections or tested a newer operating system during recent off season elections, including the Osun governorship election.

The ADC presidential candidate described the commission’s handling of the issue as suspicious, alleging that it could amount to “a deliberate attempt to subvert the integrity of the country’s elections.”

According to Atiku, vulnerabilities associated with the outdated operating system could allow “criminal elements or hackers to bypass the BVAS application entirely, gain root access to the device file system, and potentially alter cached voter logs or polling unit result files before they are transmitted.”

He also expressed concern over the transmission of election results, noting that BVAS devices rely on public telecommunication networks to transmit data to the INEC Result Viewing portal.

Atiku warned that outdated cryptographic protections could increase the risk of Man in the Middle attacks.

He said “sophisticated actors could intercept, block, or manipulate data packets over the air.”

The ADC candidate also raised concerns about the biometric functions of the devices, arguing that an outdated operating system could affect their accuracy and resilience.

He said the situation could result in “reducing the system’s accuracy and resilience against spoofing methods such as fingerprint and photo bypasses.”

Atiku further warned that vulnerabilities in the operating system could cause BVAS applications to malfunction during voting.

He said “bugs or memory leaks within legacy system frameworks can cause the app to crash during peak voting hours,” potentially leading to technical glitches and accreditation delays similar to those recorded during previous elections.

Citing cybersecurity experts, the former Vice President said, “running critical national infrastructure on an end-of-life operating system creates a broad attack surface.”

He consequently called for an independent and comprehensive audit of the BVAS devices, describing the exercise as “vital to safeguard election integrity.”

2027: Atiku Raises Alarm Over Outdated BVAS Operating System

Atiku urged INEC to urgently address the identified vulnerabilities and ensure that the technology deployed for the 2027 general elections meets the required security standards.

The ADC candidate said addressing the concerns ahead of the elections would be important to maintaining confidence in the electoral process.