The IT and Telecom’s Senate Standing Committee discussed several important issues, including data security and violations of citizens of Pakistan.
The PTA chairman provided a post on concerns over data theft, confirmed that the data was reported on the Dark Web in 2022.
The committee raised concerns whether the data of every citizen was included in the violation, the PTA chairman confirmed that, based on his information, SIM data was included. He also said that his own SIM data has been found on the Dark Web since 2022. Senator Affanullah Khan highlighted it. 65 billion are being made from the sale of stolen data.
Senator Affanullah emphasized the urgent need to make laws to protect the figures, and warned that failure to do so could cause significant harm. He cited Israel’s 2022 attack on Iran, where critical data were collected from social media and the Internet. “We are facing external pressure to prevent Pakistan from making rules for data protection,” he added.
The committee also criticized the IT ministry for failing to advance the data protection bill, calling for the ministry’s disqualification. “What is his ministry doing?” Senator Manzoor Ahmed expressed disappointment over the absence of Federal Minister Shahzad Fatima’s meeting.
The committee also learned that the data of about 300 300,000 people applying for Hajj was found on the Dark Web, which raised further concerns about the protection of personal information in the country. The PTA chairman stressed that data security was an important issue, and Senator Affanullah proposed to set up a high security data center to protect citizens’ information.
In other cases, the committee discussed the ongoing Internet connection issues in Balochistan, Senator Kamran Murtaza has emphasized that internet packages should be extended due to permanent problems in the region. The PTA chairman assured that the areas would be extended where the services were restored.
The committee also discussed the wider service quality issues across the country, the chairperson noted that the solution was at the spectrum auction. However, PTA officials highlighted that some spectrum cases are still pending in court, which can delay the process.
On the topic of security, the committee addressed the challenges facing the firewalls and web management systems, which has been going on since 2005. PTA officials have explained that the system is able to stop the entire platform, but it only interferes with calls or SMS or SMS. Compromised
The PTA chairman said that “every country has a web management system,” the Israeli government has tried to introduce insects in ISS smartphones to access private information.
Senator Affanullah proposes to create an app like WhatsApp, which will provide better security. The Additional Secretary of the Ministry of IT confirmed that the app is currently undergoing development and security clearance.