ISLAMABAD
\nInterior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has taken immediate notice of the news regarding leakage of mobile phone SIMs data and formed a special team to investigate the matter within two weeks.
\n\u201cFollowing the interior minister\u2019s directives, the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency has constituted a special inves\u00adtigation team to probe into the matter and submit its report within 14 days,\u201d says an official press rel\u00adease issued by the Interior Ministry here on Sunday.
\nIt said the team will thoroughly examine the circumstances and those involved in the data leakage will be identified and brought to justice through legal action.Media reports say that data of all SIM holders, including Interior Minister Naqvi, was sold at Google.
\nThey further said that information regarding mobile location was being sold for Rs500, mobile data record for Rs2,000 and details of foreign trips for Rs5,000. A couple of months ago, the National Cyber Emer\u00adgency Response Team of Pakistan (PKCERT) iss\u00adued an advisory warning that the login credentials and passwords of more than 180 million internet users in Pakistan have been stolen in a global data breach, urging people to take immediate protective measures.
\nMedia reports said PKCERT had identified the global breach involving a publicly accessible, unencrypted file containing more than 184 million unique account credentials. \u201cThe breach exposed user names, passwords, emails and associated URLs tied to major social media services, as well as government portals, banking institutions, and healthcare platforms worldwide,\u201d the reports said quoting the PKCERT\u2019s advisory.
\n\u201cThe leaked database is believed to have been compiled using infostealer malware \u2014 malicious software that extracts sensitive information from compromised systems,\u201d it added. \u201cThis data was stored in plain text and left completely unprotected, without encryption or password safeguarding.\u201d
\nPKCERT is a federal government entity responsible for protecting Pakistan\u2019s digital assets, sensitive information, and critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, cyberterrorism, and cyber espionage.
\nIt outlined the potential impacts of the data breach, warning that the stolen credentials could be used for account takeovers, identity theft and unauthorised access to government portals or other sensitive sites.
\nThe advisory highlighted that the publicly hosted database was storing credentials stolen from \u201cinfected endpoints\u201d without any form of authentication or protection and \u201cincluded sensitive login information for major platforms, enterprises, government agencies, and financial institutions\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has taken immediate notice of the news regarding leakage of mobile phone SIMs data and formed a special team to investigate the matter within two weeks. \u201cFollowing the interior minister\u2019s directives, the National Cyber Crimes Investigation Agency has constituted a special inves\u00adtigation team to probe into the matter and submit […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-501600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n