ISLAMABAD – A major data leak scandal has been revelaed in the countrywhere information collected by the Punjab Information Technology Board(PITB) was publicly sold on social media platforms.
Data of National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), police,telecom companies and other government-run and private companies got leakedonline due to bugs in the software and sold multiple times by hackers,TechJuicelink>said.
According to the report, sensitive data of users – including their names,contact information, CNICs, SMS and call records, NADRA family tree data,criminal records, hotel visitor information, SMS spoofing services, offlinedatabases of registered mobile users and more – has been compromised byvarious entities and sold at different places, including Facebook groups.
The report claimed that when PITB gained access to NADRA’s server, it wasallowed to digitize the data of citizens by linking CNIC numbers to variouspublic departments. “This data could only be accessed through authorizedusers, however, it is now being alleged that these officials shared theircredentials which were used for extraction and trading of sensitiveinformation of Pakistani citizens. sample unprotected API called data fromthe PITB apps developed and hosted in PITB data center. The call makes itevident that no security authentication was put in place,” the report said.
Responding on the matter, PITB Chairman Umar Saif announced that thegovernment would take legal action against the data thieves.