Bangladeshi police brokers accused of promoting residents’ private data on Telegram

Two senior officers working for anti-terror police in Bangladesh allegedly collected and offered categorised and private data of residents to criminals on Telegram, TechCrunch has discovered. 

The info allegedly offered included nationwide id particulars of residents, cellphone name information and different “categorised 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 Basic 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 a web based chat, including that the Bangladeshi Ministry of Dwelling Affairs ordered the affected police organizations to take “essential 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 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 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 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 tons 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 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 observe 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 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 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 inner authorities net portal that holds categorised citizen data, like nationwide identification particulars, cellphone registration and cell information information, prison profiles and different data. 

Numerous legislation enforcement and intelligence companies have consumer accounts on the NIP portal offered by the NTMC. 

NTMC’s personal investigation concluded that the brokers used the NIP platform extra continuously 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 categorised information ought to be investigated to determine everybody concerned on this and we additionally request for applicable motion towards all these recognized/concerned,” the letter learn.  

Baker advised TechCrunch that there have been a “variety of Telegram channels,” including that one in every of them was referred to as BD CYBER GANG.

TechCrunch couldn’t determine the particular channel on Telegram. 

Baker advised TechCrunch that it seems that the 2 brokers despatched the data 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 accordance with the letter.

Baker confirmed the suspended entry, saying that if brokers “want any data for investigation functions they will gather via 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 advised TechCrunch that the company had no remark. 

Final yr, 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, electronic mail addresses, areas and examination outcomes, in accordance with Wired. One other Bangladeshi authorities company, the Workplace of the Registrar Basic, Beginning & Loss of life Registration, additionally leaked residents’ delicate information final yr, 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 important 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 data on-line in an try to revenue from their privileged entry to categorised private data.  

Though the incident is below investigation, a well-placed supply throughout the authorities advised TechCrunch that there are nonetheless officers who’re providing to promote residents’ information.