Two senior officers working for anti-terror police in Bangladesh allegedly collected and offered categorised and private info of residents to criminals on Telegram, TechCrunch has discovered.
The information allegedly offered included nationwide identification particulars of residents, cellular phone name data and different “categorised secret info,” based on a letter signed by a senior Bangladeshi intelligence official, seen by TechCrunch.
The letter, dated April 28, was written by Brigadier Normal 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 circumstances,” Baker mentioned in an internet chat, including that the Bangladeshi Ministry of House Affairs ordered the affected police organizations to take “mandatory motion towards 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 info” of personal residents on Telegram in change for cash.
Based on 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 Speedy Motion Battalion, often known as RAB 6, a controversial paramilitary unit that the U.S. authorities sanctioned in 2021 over allegations that the unit is linked to lots of of disappearances and extrajudicial killings. TechCrunch is just not naming the 2 individuals who had been accused because it’s unclear if they’ve been charged beneath the nation’s authorized system.
The NTMC is a authorities intelligence company established beneath Bangladesh’s Ministry of House Affairs. The company’s core job is to watch 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 towards abuses, each towards 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 nations, 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 inner authorities internet portal that holds categorised citizen info, like nationwide identification particulars, cellular phone registration and cell information data, prison profiles and different info.
Varied regulation enforcement and intelligence businesses have person accounts on the NIP portal offered by the NTMC.
NTMC’s personal investigation concluded that the brokers used the NIP platform extra regularly than others, and accessed and picked up info that was not related to them.
“Contemplating the context, such irrelevant entry and illegal handover of extraordinarily delicate categorised information must be investigated to establish everybody concerned on this and we additionally request for acceptable motion towards all these recognized/concerned,” the letter learn.
Baker informed TechCrunch that there have been a “variety of Telegram channels,” including that one among them was referred to as BD CYBER GANG.
TechCrunch couldn’t establish 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 mentioned 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,” based on the letter.
Baker confirmed the suspended entry, saying that if brokers “want any info for investigation functions they will 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 info on an unsecured server. The leaked information included real-world names, cellphone numbers, electronic mail addresses, areas and examination outcomes, based on Wired. One other Bangladeshi authorities company, the Workplace of the Registrar Normal, Start & Demise Registration, additionally leaked residents’ delicate information final 12 months, as TechCrunch reported on the time.
In each circumstances, the leaks had been discovered by Viktor Markopoulos, a researcher who works at Bitcrack Cyber Safety.
Whereas these had been vital circumstances of information publicity, this incident allegedly involving the ATU and RAB 6 brokers is probably extra damaging, on condition that the brokers allegedly offered info on-line in an try to revenue from their privileged entry to categorised private info.
Though the incident is beneath investigation, a well-placed supply inside the authorities informed TechCrunch that there are nonetheless officers who’re providing to promote residents’ information.
