Two senior officers working for anti-terror police in Bangladesh allegedly collected and offered labeled and private data of residents to criminals on Telegram, TechCrunch has realized.
The info allegedly offered included nationwide identification particulars of residents, mobile phone name information and different “labeled secret data,” in accordance with a letter signed by a senior Bangladeshi intelligence official, seen by TechCrunch.
The letter, dated April 28, was written by Brigadier Common Mohammad Baker, who serves as a director of Bangladesh’s Nationwide Telecommunications Monitoring Heart, or NTMC, the nation’s digital eavesdropping company. Baker confirmed the legitimacy of the letter and its contents in an interview with TechCrunch.
“Departmental investigation is ongoing for each the instances,” Baker stated in a web based chat, including that the Bangladeshi Ministry of House Affairs ordered the affected police organizations to take “needed motion in opposition to these officers.”
The letter, which was initially written in Bengali and addressed to the senior secretary of the Ministry of House Affairs Public Safety Division, alleges the 2 police brokers accessed and handed “extraordinarily delicate data” of personal residents on Telegram in trade for cash.
In response to the letter, the police brokers had been caught after investigators analyzed logs of the NTMC’s programs and the way typically the 2 accessed it.
The letter reveals the identification of the officers. One of many accused is a police superintendent serving with the Anti-Terrorism Unit (ATU). The opposite is an assistant police superintendent deputy on the Fast Motion Battalion, also referred to as RAB 6, a controversial paramilitary unit that the U.S. authorities sanctioned in 2021 over allegations that the unit is linked to a whole bunch of disappearances and extrajudicial killings. TechCrunch isn’t naming the 2 individuals who had been accused because it’s unclear if they’ve been charged below the nation’s authorized system.
The NTMC is a authorities intelligence company established below Bangladesh’s Ministry of House Affairs. The company’s core process is to observe all telecommunications visitors and intercept cellphone and internet communications to detect and stop threats to nationwide safety.
Organizations like Human Rights Watch and Freedom Home have criticized the NTMC for missing safeguards in opposition to abuses, each in opposition to free speech in addition to privateness. Through the years, NTMC procured subtle know-how from firms in Israel, which Bangladesh doesn’t formally acknowledge, in addition to different Western international locations, to conduct mass surveillance largely on opposition celebration members, journalists, civil society members and activists.
As a part of its mission, the NTMC runs the Nationwide Intelligence Platform, or NIP, an inside authorities internet portal that holds labeled citizen data, like nationwide identification particulars, mobile phone registration and cell information information, prison profiles and different data.
Varied legislation enforcement and intelligence companies have person accounts on the NIP portal supplied by the NTMC.
NTMC’s personal investigation concluded that the brokers used the NIP platform extra steadily than others, and accessed and picked up data that was not related to them.
“Contemplating the context, such irrelevant entry and illegal handover of extraordinarily delicate labeled information must be investigated to determine everybody concerned on this and we additionally request for applicable motion in opposition to all these recognized/concerned,” the letter learn.
Baker informed TechCrunch that there have been a “variety of Telegram channels,” including that considered one of them was known as BD CYBER GANG.
TechCrunch couldn’t determine the precise channel on Telegram.
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Baker informed TechCrunch that it seems that the 2 brokers despatched the knowledge to the administrator of at the very least one Telegram group, who then tried to promote it.
Baker stated that the 2 brokers have been notified of the investigation.
Due to the investigation, all NIP customers from ATU and RAB 6 have had their entry suspended “till the concerned officers are recognized, and correct motion is taken,” in accordance with the letter.
Baker confirmed the suspended entry, saying that if brokers “want any data for investigation functions they’ll accumulate by means of Police and RAB HQ.”
Spokespeople for Bangladesh’s Ministry of House Affairs and ATU didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. An individual figuring out solely as an “operations officer” at RAB 6 informed TechCrunch that the company had no remark.
Final 12 months, a safety researcher discovered that the NTMC was leaking individuals’s private data on an unsecured server. The leaked information included real-world names, cellphone numbers, e-mail addresses, places and examination outcomes, in accordance with Wired. One other Bangladeshi authorities company, the Workplace of the Registrar Common, Start & Dying Registration, additionally leaked residents’ delicate information final 12 months, as TechCrunch reported on the time.
In each instances, the leaks had been discovered by Viktor Markopoulos, a researcher who works at Bitcrack Cyber Safety.
Whereas these had been vital instances of knowledge publicity, this incident allegedly involving the ATU and RAB 6 brokers is doubtlessly extra damaging, provided that the brokers allegedly offered data on-line in an try to revenue from their privileged entry to labeled private data.
Though the incident is below investigation, a well-placed supply throughout the authorities informed TechCrunch that there are nonetheless officers who’re providing to promote residents’ information.
