A shocking revelation has emerged regarding the leak of personal information of over 110 million Bangladeshi citizens, stored in the Election Commission’s (EC) data center. The preliminary police investigation has uncovered that this sensitive information was sold for a staggering 2 trillion BDT.
Following the investigation, former Director of the EC’s Data Center, Tareq M Barakatullah, has been arrested. However, the involvement of Sajeeb Wazed Joy, son of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ICT advisor, as well as former State Minister for ICT, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, is still under investigation.
At a press conference held at the DMP Media Center on Wednesday, October 9, Deputy Commissioner (DC) of the DMP’s Media and Public Relations Division, Muhammad Talebur Rahman, provided details about the case.
He explained that on October 4, 2022, a bilateral agreement was signed between the Bangladesh Election Commission and the Bangladesh Computer Council, which falls under the Ministry of ICT, regarding the use of the National ID verification service. According to Article 2 of this agreement, the Bangladesh Computer Council is prohibited from transferring or selling any data stored by the Election Commission to any entity.
As per the agreement, a mirror copy of the personal data of over 110 million citizens was created and handed over to the Bangladesh Computer Council in April 2019. In September 2019, the council illegally provided this data to a private company named Digicon Global Services Limited for commercial use. From September 2019 to the present, Digicon Global Services has sold this data through the website porichoy.gov.bd to over 180 domestic and international, governmental and non-governmental organizations in exchange for money.
The Election Commission Secretariat’s Data Center, which contains the personal information of over 110 million citizens, has been officially recognized as critical information infrastructure by government notification.
The press conference further revealed that the arrested former director of the data center, Tareq M Barakatullah, illegally accessed various companies and critical infrastructure, copied the database, and transferred the information for digital and electronic fraud. Moreover, he collected and used citizens’ personal data for commercial purposes without proper legal authorization. Preliminary investigations have discovered that these transactions involved e-transactions amounting to 2 trillion BDT, in violation of privacy laws. The police are also investigating how the citizens’ personal information was handed over to the Bangladesh Computer Council even before the agreement was signed.
Earlier, on Tuesday night, a cyber security case was filed by a man named Enamul Haque at Kafrul Police Station. In this case, Sajeeb Wazed Joy, Zunaid Ahmed Palak, and 19 others were named, while 15 to 20 unidentified individuals were listed as suspects.