Two senior officers working for anti-terror police in Bangladesh allegedly collected and offered categorized and private info of residents to criminals on Telegram, TechCrunch has discovered.
The info allegedly offered included nationwide id particulars of residents, cellphone name information and different “categorized secret info,” in line with 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 Middle, 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 mentioned in an internet chat, including that the Bangladeshi Ministry of Dwelling 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 Dwelling Affairs Public Safety Division, alleges the 2 police brokers accessed and handed “extraordinarily delicate info” of personal residents on Telegram in trade for cash.
In response to the letter, the police brokers have been caught after investigators analyzed logs of the NTMC’s techniques and the way usually the 2 accessed it.
The letter reveals the id 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 a whole lot of disappearances and extrajudicial killings. TechCrunch is just not naming the 2 individuals who have 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 Dwelling Affairs. The company’s core activity is to watch all telecommunications site visitors and intercept cellphone and net 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. Over time, NTMC procured refined expertise from corporations in Israel, which Bangladesh doesn’t formally acknowledge, in addition to different Western international locations, to conduct mass surveillance largely on opposition social gathering 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 net portal that holds categorized citizen info, like nationwide identification particulars, cellphone registration and cell knowledge information, legal profiles and different info.
Varied regulation enforcement and intelligence businesses 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 info that was not related to them.
“Contemplating the context, such irrelevant entry and illegal handover of extraordinarily delicate categorized knowledge ought to be investigated to determine 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 considered one of them was referred to 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 not less than 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,” in line with the letter.
Baker confirmed the suspended entry, saying that if brokers “want any info for investigation functions they will accumulate by Police and RAB HQ.”
Spokespeople for Bangladesh’s Ministry of Dwelling 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 yr, a safety researcher discovered that the NTMC was leaking individuals’s private info on an unsecured server. The leaked knowledge included real-world names, cellphone numbers, electronic mail addresses, areas and examination outcomes, in line with Wired. One other Bangladeshi authorities company, the Workplace of the Registrar Normal, Start & Loss of life Registration, additionally leaked residents’ delicate knowledge final yr, as TechCrunch reported on the time.
In each instances, the leaks have been discovered by Viktor Markopoulos, a researcher who works at Bitcrack Cyber Safety.
Whereas these have been vital instances 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 categorized private info.
Though the incident is below investigation, a well-placed supply inside the authorities informed TechCrunch that there are nonetheless officers who’re providing to promote residents’ knowledge.