The Election Commission (EC) has temporarily suspended the ‘verification services’ of BRAC Bank and the Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party (VDP) after finding evidence of National Identity Card (NID) information leaks. ASM Humayun Kabir, Director General of the EC’s NID Wing, disclosed this to journalists yesterday, Wednesday, in response to various questions at Agargaon in the capital. He stated that an investigation into the data leak incident has already commenced.

The Director General said, “During monitoring yesterday (Tuesday), it was detected that there is evidence of data leaks from two institutions. These two institutions are Ansar-VDP and BRAC Bank; the data leak incident is occurring from there. As the leak is happening from two places, we have temporarily suspended it according to the authorities’ decision.”

Currently, 186 institutions are contracted with the EC to receive information verification services from the NID division. Previously, in February, a data leak incident occurred from a third party receiving NID services. Services for five of those institutions remain suspended since then. This time, evidence of data leaks was found in two more institutions.

ASM Humayun Kabir mentioned that contracted institutions are regularly monitored in the interest of data security. He added, “During monitoring, evidence of our information being leaked from two institutions was caught. At that point, we became a little concerned, and those who were monitoring verified it more thoroughly.”

The official stated that efforts are being made to stop information leaks by any means necessary. He added, “Whatever needs to be done according to the subsequent agreement will be done. This is an ongoing process. We are determined to protect the information of the country's citizens, which is stored at the EC, at any cost.”

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