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Two senior officials doing the job for anti-terror law enforcement in Bangladesh allegedly collected and marketed classified and personal data of citizens to criminals on Telegram, TechCrunch has realized. 

The info allegedly bought included national id aspects of citizens, cell mobile phone contact data and other “classified key information and facts,” according to a letter signed by a senior Bangladeshi intelligence official, observed by TechCrunch.

The letter, dated April 28, was composed by Brigadier Typical Mohammad Baker, who serves as a director of Bangladesh’s Nationwide Telecommunications Monitoring Middle, or NTMC, the country’s electronic eavesdropping agency. Baker verified the legitimacy of the letter and its contents in an job interview with TechCrunch. 

“Departmental investigation is ongoing for equally the situations,” Baker stated in an on line chat, introducing that the Bangladeshi Ministry of House Affairs ordered the afflicted police organizations to take “necessary action from these officers.” 

The letter, which was at first penned in Bengali and addressed to the senior secretary of the Ministry of House Affairs Community Safety Division, alleges the two police agents accessed and handed “extremely sensitive information” of personal citizens on Telegram in trade for revenue.

According to the letter, the police agents ended up caught after investigators analyzed logs of the NTMC’s units and how often the two accessed it.

The letter reveals the identity of the officers. A person of the accused is a police superintendent serving with the Anti-Terrorism Device (ATU). The other is an assistant law enforcement superintendent deputy at the Quick Motion Battalion, also recognised as RAB 6, a controversial paramilitary device that the U.S. governing administration sanctioned in 2021 about allegations that the device is connected to hundreds of disappearances and extrajudicial killings. TechCrunch is not naming the two folks who were being accused as it is unclear if they have been billed underneath the country’s legal procedure.

The NTMC is a government intelligence agency recognized less than Bangladesh’s Ministry of House Affairs. The agency’s main endeavor is to monitor all telecommunications visitors and intercept cellphone and net communications to detect and avoid threats to national stability. 

Businesses like Human Legal rights Enjoy and Flexibility House have criticized the NTMC for lacking safeguards against abuses, the two from totally free speech as nicely as privateness. Above the yrs, NTMC procured innovative technological know-how from corporations in Israel, which Bangladesh does not formally figure out, as effectively as other Western nations around the world, to conduct mass surveillance largely on opposition bash customers, journalists, civil society associates and activists.  

As component of its mission, the NTMC runs the Countrywide Intelligence System, or NIP, an interior govt net portal that holds categorised citizen information and facts, like countrywide identification aspects, mobile telephone registration and cell information data, legal profiles and other data. 

A variety of legislation enforcement and intelligence businesses have person accounts on the NIP portal furnished by the NTMC. 

NTMC’s possess investigation concluded that the agents used the NIP system extra frequently than other folks, and accessed and collected details that was not applicable to them.

“Considering the context, this kind of irrelevant obtain and illegal handover of exceptionally sensitive labeled info need to be investigated to determine absolutely everyone included in this and we also ask for for appropriate motion in opposition to all all those identified/involved,” the letter examine.  

Baker advised TechCrunch that there had been a “number of Telegram channels,” introducing that just one of them was called BD CYBER GANG.

TechCrunch could not recognize the unique channel on Telegram. 

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Do you have much more facts about this incident, or related incidents? From a non-perform product, you can call Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely on Signal at +1 917 257 1382, or by means of Telegram, Keybase and Wire @lorenzofb, or e mail. You can also reach out to Zulkarnain Saer Khan on Sign at +36707723819, or on X @ZulkarnainSaer. You also can contact TechCrunch via SecureDrop.

Baker instructed TechCrunch that it appears that the two brokers sent the details to the administrator of at least just one Telegram team, who then tried to sell it. 

Baker said that the two agents have been notified of the investigation. 

Due to the fact of the investigation, all NIP end users from ATU and RAB 6 have had their entry suspended “until the involved officers are identified, and suitable motion is taken,” in accordance to the letter.

Baker confirmed the suspended obtain, saying that if brokers “need any facts for investigation reasons they can collect through Police and RAB HQ.”

Spokespeople for Bangladesh’s Ministry of House Affairs and ATU did not reply to several requests for comment. A particular person identifying only as an “operations officer” at RAB 6 told TechCrunch that the company had no remark. 

Previous 12 months, a security researcher found that the NTMC was leaking people’s particular details on an unsecured server. The leaked info included actual-world names, cellular phone numbers, e-mail addresses, places and examination final results, according to Wired. Another Bangladeshi federal government agency, the Workplace of the Registrar Basic, Beginning & Dying Registration, also leaked citizens’ sensitive facts last 12 months, as TechCrunch reported at the time.

In equally scenarios, the leaks ended up identified by Viktor Markopoulos, a researcher who operates at Bitcrack Cyber Protection. 

While those people have been major scenarios of information publicity, this incident allegedly involving the ATU and RAB 6 brokers is potentially far more harming, provided that the agents allegedly bought information on the web in an endeavor to gain from their privileged accessibility to categorized private details.  

Despite the fact that the incident is beneath investigation, a perfectly-placed source inside the govt advised TechCrunch that there are nonetheless officers who are providing to promote citizens’ info.

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