The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has updated its website’s Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

This came hours after FIJ reported security lapses on the site.

FIJ checked on Thursday evening and confirmed the police had updated the https://npf.gov.ng/ site’s security and browsers were no longer warning visitors to be wary of threats.

Prior to this update, visiting the website would be preceded by a security warning that read: “Your connection is not private. Attackers might be trying to steal your information from npf.gov.ng (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards).”

According to sources, the NPF left the site unattended for a while and did not bother to renew the certificate, in violation of section 7.2 of the guidelines stipulated by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) for government websites.

READ MORE: ALERT: NPF Website Unsafe for Visitors as Police Fail to Renew SSL Certificate

Explaining the implications, Francis Ihejirijka, a software developer, told FIJ: “If one is sending sensitive information via a form or any other means on the site, a bad actor can intercept that data and cause havoc with it. If they leave the site like that, everyone who visits will see the error and will be vulnerable to leaks.”

Confirming the update to FIJ via text message, Muyiwa Adejobi, Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), said, “The SSL certificate had some issues, but it has been fixed.”

During FIJ’s visit to the now-updated website, the newspaper found that a page containing contacts for Police Public Relations Officers (PPROs) had some obsolete information.

The names and phone numbers of at least three PPROs – Abia, Kaduna and Ogun State – belonged to persons who no longer occupied the office. The website names Geoffrey Ogbonna, Mohammed Jalige and Abimbola Oyeyemi as PROs of the three states, respectively, but the current PPROs of those states are Maureen Chinaka (since June 2023), Abia; Mansir Hassan (since October 2023), Kaduna; and Omolola Odutola (since June 2023), Ogun.