You should be worried about #NADRAGate, here’s why

Background

There have been multiple reports leaked from various credible sources about NSA & GCHQ hacking into Pakistan’s critical infrastructure. One of the first reports that was made public was in June 2015 published by Intercept which highlighted GCHQ’s infiltrating PTCL’s Core Routers and hence allowing them not only intercept every single user’s traffic but it also had abilities to re-route the traffic to their passive collection systems.

This report was followed up by another roughly one year back, which pointed out that NSA had gained access to Pakistan’s National Telecommunications Corporation (NTC) using Malware known as “SECOND DATE

Part of this was confirmed in October 2016, when a group known as “Shadow Brokers” leaked list of hosts that were compromised as a part of NSA’s operation, The leaks also reveal a step by step guide on how NSA compromised Mobilink’s network including the CDR Servers (Call Data Records) in 2006. 

From the evidence obtained, it is very clear that NSA & GHCQ both had significant amount of interest in hijacking Pakistan’s critical infrastructure. As per an article published by TheNews in 2011, it was made evident that NADRA decided to outsource work to International Identity Services LIMITED. It was also reported by Tariq Lodhi, General Manager, NADRA that the project to outsource NADRA to IIS was under way since June 2009. As per the evidence the company was also registered in the very same year which raises the question that why did NADRA decide to outsource work to IIS when the company was created in the same year and had no track record of doing such a job.

Rafay Baloch is a Pakistani ethical hacker and security researcher known for his discovery of vulnerabilities on the Android operating system. He has been featured and known by both national and international media and publications like Forbes, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, and The Express Tribune.

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