TechCrunch, a US-based online media outlet, has reported on the leak of personal information of “thousands of people” from the Office of the Registrar General, BDRIS.
The Office of the Registrar General, BDRIS utilized the NID data verification services provided by the EC. After the incident, the EC said that the leak was the result of an organization not complying with data storage rules. Subsequently, the Election Commission held a meeting with experts to deal with the situation. It was recommended to closely monitor the organizations contracted with the EC and conduct regular information technology audits (IT audits) to enhance data security.
Following the data leak, Minister of State for Information Technology Junaid Ahmed commented that the government website lacked necessary security measures, leaving no scope for avoidance of accountability.
Subsequently, last month, a separate incident came to light in which personal information and documents were leaked from an education board’s website.
Professor Rajesh Palit of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North South University expressed his concern to Prothom Alo about the alarming rate of information leaks.
He stressed that if fingerprints were also compromised then the situation would be serious. Palit pointed out that both government agencies and private organizations collect citizens’ information but often struggle to keep it secure. He highlighted the potential risks and emphasized that leaking of personal information could leave ordinary individuals vulnerable to criminal activities.
There are examples of organizations being punished for data leaks in various countries around the world. For example, in 2019, Singapore’s Integrated Health Information System was fined US$750,000 (about 80 million taka) for leaking patients’ personal information. Such cases have come to light in other countries also. However, there is no known precedent of anyone facing punishment for a data leak so far in Bangladesh.
*This report, which originally appeared in Bengali in the Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten in English by Farzana Liaquat.
