Explosion at EDP Centre: Clients’ data, devices safe, founder assures

Founder and Chairman of EDP Centre Computer Audit Laboratory, Mr. Chris Ekeigwe, has assured clients of the information technology (IT) and auditing firm of the safety of their data and devices.

Ekeigwe gave the assurance, following an explosion at the gate of the company, which is located at River Valley Estate, in the Ojodu Berger Bus Stop neighbourhood on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, in the early hours of Sunday, November 27, 2022.

He said with the help of international partners, EDP Centre has since implemented novel platform and device hardening technologies to protect clients’ data.

He explained that technology has helped the firm to pseudonymise its experts and consultants to make them difficult to identify by criminals, adding: “As for the critical data we handle for clients, we have anonymised critical information, so they would be useless in the hands of those without legal rights to have them.

“We want to assure all our clients that we continue to maintain the integrity of our work and materials in highly secure indeterminate locations with world class electronic and physical security technologies and procedures, and with the help of our global technical partners.”

Ekeigwe noted further: “All sensitive information in our hands are secure and will continue to be in secure chain of custody because we practise our profession as a calling, with intrepidity and with commitment to protecting client and public interest.” 

He said the firm has, over the years, made prospective investments in normative security technologies that ensure no sensitive information of clients will ever be compromised, stressing that in the 40 years of its existence no bit of clients’ sensitive data has been lost or compromised.

“Our clients should have no worries; our stolid integrity is unfazed and unawed by criminal adversities,” he assured.  The explosion caused serious vibration to the gatehouse of the centre for computer security auditing and data analytics, which is renowned for pioneering initiatives in training the first generation of IT security auditors and audit data analysis experts in Africa. 

Though the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, had said the explosion was caused by a chemical reaction from a refuse dump close to the building of the company, thereby, dismissing any insinuation that it was a bomb explosion, Ekeigwe said he believes the preliminary assessment by the police might change as they get more scientific evidence from forensic experts.

“Given other events that we have experienced, we believe the explosion could be a warning shot from criminal elements,” he said.

According to him, EDP and its staff could be a target of attack because there is speculation in the industry that the company is currently conducting system security audits for sensitive organisations.

He recalled that some years ago, criminals attacked EDP experts in Lagos traffic after they left sensitive client facilities, taking away high security biometric storage media from them. He, however, added that this resulted in no data loss due to the unassailable technology of the storage media.