The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has completed its recent investigation into reports of citizen data being leaked online.
PTA sources told Propacitani that the data circulating on the Internet is old and does not seem to have been leaked directly from telecom companies. There was no evidence in the investigation that the telecom operators’ systems are a source of violation.
The results say that citizens’ call details record (CDR), travel date, and family trees information were not kept together in any database. Data, such as travel history, family details, and vehicle registration, were not available with telecom operators, which suggests that the leak record was compiled by several sources before being uploaded on the Dark Web.
The investigation further revealed that in 2022, the PTA shared some data with the Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) and the Benazir Income Support Program (BISP). PTA sources have claimed that joint data with these organizations can be leaked on the Internet. The regulator conducted a similar inquiry in 2022, with a third party forensic analysis confirmed that the compromise data was old.
During the latest investigation, PTA examined about 1,500 mobile SIM records, which showed contradictions. In many cases, mobile numbers, CNIC and address belong to different people, raising questions about the accuracy of the leaked data. PTA sources said that the issue of public information related to CDR has been raised several times, emphasizing the need for a strong mechanism to protect citizens’ personal information.
The investigative report will be sent to the Interior Ministry for further action. The National Cyber Criminal Investigation Agency has also been used with the investigation of the matter on the direction of the Home Minister. PTA sources stressed that the investigation should identify the source of the leak and emphasize the need for a more secure national framework to protect the data of the citizens.