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Two older official do work for anti - terror police in Bangladesh allegedly collected and sell classified and personal information of citizens to crook on Telegram , TechCrunch has learned .
The data allegedly sold included national individuality detail of citizens , cell headphone call phonograph recording and other “ classified secret information , ” according to a varsity letter signed by a older Bangladeshi intelligence official , seen by TechCrunch .
The letter of the alphabet , dated April 28 , was written by Brigadier General Mohammad Baker , who serve as a manager of Bangladesh ’s National Telecommunications Monitoring Center , or NTMC , the country ’s electronic eavesdropping agency . Baker corroborate the legitimacy of the letter and its contents in an interview with TechCrunch .
“ Departmental investigating is ongoing for both the cases , ” Baker say in an on-line chat , adding that the Bangladeshi Ministry of Home Affairs order the affected police formation to take “ necessary action against those officers . ”
The letter of the alphabet , which was originally written in Bengali and address to the elderly secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs Public Security Division , alleges the two police agents accessed and put across “ highly sensitive information ” of individual citizens on Telegram in exchange for money .
According to the letter , the constabulary agents were caught after tec analyzed logs of the NTMC ’s organisation and how often the two get at it . The missive reveals the identity of the official . One of the accused is a law superintendent serving with the Anti - Terrorism Unit ( ATU ) . The other is an assistant police superintendent surrogate at the Rapid Action Battalion , also known as RAB 6,a controversial paramilitary force unitthat the U.S. governmentsanctioned in 2021over allegations that the unit is linked to century of disappearances and extrajudicial putting to death . TechCrunch is not naming the two the great unwashed who were accused as it ’s unclear if they have been charged under the country ’s sound organization .
The NTMC is a politics news agency prove under Bangladesh ’s Ministry of Home Affairs . The agency ’s core undertaking is to monitor all telecommunications traffic and bug phone and WWW communication to detect and keep threats to national security .
Organizations likeHuman Rights WatchandFreedom Househave criticized the NTMC for lack safeguards against abuses , both against free speech as well as privateness . Over the years , NTMC secure advanced engineering science fromcompanies in Israel , which Bangladesh does not officially recognise , as well asother Western state , to carry aggregated surveillance mostly on opposition party members , diarist , civil social club members and activists .
As part of its mission , the NTMC runs the National Intelligence Platform , or NIP , an home government web portal that holds classified citizen information , like home identification details , mobile phone telephone set registration and cubicle information records , criminal profile and other entropy .
Various constabulary enforcement and intelligence agency agency have exploiter account on the NIP portal provided by the NTMC .
NTMC ’s own investigation conclude that the federal agent used the NIP platform more oftentimes than others , and accessed and accumulate info that was not relevant to them .
“ Considering the circumstance , such irrelevant access code and unlawful handover of passing tender classified information should be look into to identify everyone involve in this and we also request for appropriate action mechanism against all those discover / involved , ” the letter read .
Baker told TechCrunch that there were a “ number of Telegram channels , ” adding that one of them was called BD CYBER bunch .
TechCrunch could not name the specific channel on Telegram .
Baker told TechCrunch that it appears that the two agents sent the information to the administrator of at least one Telegram group , who then attempted to sell it .
Baker said that the two agent have been notified of the investigation .
Because of the investigation , all NIP drug user from ATU and RAB 6 have had their accession suspend “ until the involved official are distinguish , and proper action mechanism is take , ” according to the alphabetic character .
Baker confirm the suspended access , saying that if agents “ require any data for investigation role they can collect through Police and RAB HQ . ”
Spokespeople for Bangladesh ’s Ministry of Home Affairs and ATU did not respond to multiple request for comment . A person identify only as an “ surgery officer ” at RAB 6 told TechCrunch that the federal agency had no comment .
Last year , a security system researcher find that the NTMC was leaking mass ’s personal information on an unguaranteed waiter . The leaked data includedreal - creation names , phone issue , email destination , placement and exam results , according to Wired . Another Bangladeshi government agency , theOffice of the Registrar General , Birth & Death Registration , alsoleaked citizens ’ sensitive datalast yr , as TechCrunch reported at the clip .
In both case , the passing water were found by Viktor Markopoulos , a research worker who works at Bitcrack Cyber Security .
While those were significant cases of data exposure , this incident allegedly involving the ATU and RAB 6 agents is potentially more detrimental , given that the agents allegedly sell information online in an attempt to profit from their privileged access to classified personal information .
Although the incident is under investigation , a well - placed author within the government told TechCrunch that there are still officials who are declare oneself to trade citizen ’ data .
