By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The government warned its officials of attempts to hack their mobile phones and obtain sensitive information by phishing elements posing as senior authorities.
“Security agencies have unearthed an attempt to hack the mobile phones of senior government officials in a bid to obtain sensitive information,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement on Friday.
The PM office said the elements behind the attempts used phishing methods while posing as senior government officials. “Attempts to obtain information were also made by sending mobile-hacking links on WhatsApp.”
The government has instructed all officials to be vigilant and ignore any such messages, and to alert the Cabinet Division immediately if they receive one. “Pakistan’s security agencies are fully alert on this matter.”
The warning comes amid concerns over data breaches and leaks of audio recordings of conversations between key government figures.
In July, the Public Accounts Committee directed the Interior Ministry to conduct a joint investigation into a data leak from the National Database and Registration Authority, which handles citizens’ biometric data.
In September last year, several audio clips surfaced on social media featuring informal conversations in the Prime Minister’s Office between then-premier Shehbaz Sharif, PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz, and some members of the federal cabinet. The topics ranged from importing Indian machinery for a power project to facilitating the return of former army chief Pervez Musharraf.
Sharif had termed the audio leaks a “very serious lapse” and announced a probe into the matter.
The former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf party had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking an investigation into the audios. Khan had also written a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and other judges, seeking enforcement of the fundamental rights of privacy.
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