ISLAMABAD – NADRA has made alarming revelations about the data leak involving the current Army Chief General Asim Munir’s family as the matter made headlines and opened a new Pandora’s Box.
A day after a Pakistani English daily shared the exclusive story on data breach, the custodian of Pakistan’s largest registered citizen database confirmed the data theft of the country’s top general.
In its statement, NADRA said Chairman Tariq Malik was not in the country when the breach occurred. The department shares citizens’ data with several sectors, including some institutions, telcos, government institutions, and law enforcement agencies.
NADRA said several users of different institutions accessed the data of COAS before he was appointed Chief of Army Staff (COAS), which according to the probe was done with illegitimate motives. Some banks, law enforcement agencies, and even housing authorities accessed the family data of Army Chief.
Following the breach, NADRA Chairman continued the exercise to check who accessed the personal data and after the brief probe, officials came to know that some 24 users accessed personal data of Gen Asim in 2021.
After the breach, the NADRA chairman stopped the practice of checking citizens’ data without cause by taking certain measures. Investigators also informed institutions about the data breach of data from and urged them to take action. Meanwhile, all culprits have been identified, and legal proceedings are due.
As the issue made headlines, Tariq Malik maintained a zero-tolerance policy and started monitoring NADRA’s employees. Meanwhile, an AI-based system was also put in place to restrict unauthorized access to citizens’ data.
‘Ijazat Aap Ki’: Pakistan empowers citizens with maiden data protection service
Let it be known that, a service dubbed as ‘Ijazat Aap ki’ was rolled out to save citizens’ personal data. It empowered people to give their consent before verification of the CNIC.
Who leaked the personal data of Pakistan’s Army Chief Gen Asim Munir?
