Two cops accused of selling citizens’ personal data to criminals

Two police officers are facing punishment on charges of selling ‘extremely sensitive’ personal data of citizens, such as NID details and phone call records, to criminals online.

The officers include a superintendent of police at the Anti-Terrorism Unit and an assistant SP at the Rapid Action Battalion, bdnews24.com reported citing tech news website TechCrunch.

Major General Ziaul Ahsan, director general of the National Telecommunication Monitoring Centre (NTMC), said the two police officials used to sell the information via Facebook and Telegram.

The NTMC identified the leak and wrote to the home ministry for the two officials’ punishment. The ministry then asked the RAB and police to take steps against them, Ziaul said.

He said ATU and RAB-6’s access to the server was blocked after the incident. Officials of the two units are required to get information through their headquarters.

Asked how the data from NIP were taken out, Ziaul said: “We don’t have any weaknesses here. We can easily detect if someone takes out information from our system.”

Brigadier General Mohammad Baker, an NTMC director who signed the Apr 28 letter, told TechCrunch that there were a “number of Telegram channels,” adding that one of them was called BD CYBER GANG.

Baker also 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.