ISLAMABAD: The Interior Ministry has been informed by a Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which was established to look into a data leak from the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra), that between 2019 and 2023, the personal information of up to 2.7 million people may have been stolen.
Dawn was informed by sources that the Joint Investigation Team (JIT), which included officials from other intelligence agencies and was led by a senior FIA officer, had concluded its investigation and filed a report to the government.
The JIT concluded that several officials should be held accountable for the data leak and suggested that Nadra offices in Peshawar, Karachi, and Multan be involved as well.
Reports claimed to have evidence of Nadra data appearing in Romania and Argentina, according to sources.
JIT provides the interior ministry with a report on the Nadra data leak.
According to a source, Nadra has already made a number of improvements to the way it provides its services while guaranteeing the highest level of database security.
After an investigation of the cyber security incident that occurred in March 2023, steps have been taken.
The JIT has also suggested departmental and criminal actions against the individuals deemed accountable for the failure, in addition to a technological upgrade.
Although the vulnerability of Nadra’s data had previously been brought up, it wasn’t until an information leak involving specific high-ranking military personnel was made public that the matter gained traction.
A National Assembly subcommittee was informed in November 2021 that Nadra’s security framework’s flaws may have allowed the personal information of millions of Pakistanis to be accessed.
A senior official from the Federal Insurance Administration disclosed that certain biometric details had been compromised in a previous hearing of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication.
Subsequently, it was made clear that the full data record had not been “compromised,” but rather just the biometric system used, among other things, for SIM verification.
