InfoSecBulletin Cybersecurity for mankind
Millions of Bangladeshi citizens’ personal information, including full names, phone numbers, email addresses, and national ID numbers, was accidentally leaked through a government website. The breach was initially discovered by Viktor Markopoulos, a researcher employed at Bitcrack Cyber Security, who promptly notified the Bangladeshi e-Government Computer Incident Response Team (CERT) upon making the finding according to the report.
TechCrunch independently confirmed the legitimacy of the leaked data by utilizing a portion of it to query a public search tool on the affected government website. The website provided additional details from the compromised database, such as the applicant’s name and, in certain instances, the names of their parents. To ensure accuracy, TechCrunch repeated this process with ten different data sets, each time receiving correct information.
Critical cPanel, GitLab AI Gateway and Dell CSM Flaws Enable RCE And Admin Hijacking
Nearly 100,000 email addresses exposed in first AI-related data breach in Singapore
Hackers Exploit Zimbra Mail Servers: TeamViewer patched 5 critical flaws
Google Warns of Hackers Actively Exploiting Citrix 0-Day Flaws
CISA Warns Critical MikroTik RouterOS Flaw While Cisco SD-WAN Zero-Day Exploited in Attacks
Apple Zero-Day Exploited: Pentagon Data Breach Reportedly Exposes Sensitive Data of 3 Million People
JadePuffer Agentic AI targets and destroys Azure’s cloud resources
“InfoSecCon-2026: Bangladesh’s Cybersecurity Leaders Unite to Shape a Safer Digital Future”
Microsoft Patches CVSS 10.0 Azure AI Foundry Vulnerability Allowing Privilege Escalation
AWS is unable to restore access to Bahrain, one UAE cloud data zone after war damage
Out of concern for ongoing data availability, TechCrunch has chosen not to disclose the name of the government website. Despite reaching out to various Bangladeshi government organizations via email to alert them of the data exposure and request comments, no responses have been received at the time of reporting.
In Bangladesh, every citizen aged 18 and above is issued a mandatory National Identity Card that assigns a unique identification number. This card grants individuals access to numerous services, including obtaining a driver’s license, passport, engaging in land transactions, opening bank accounts, and more.
Requests for comments from Bangladesh’s CERT, the government’s press office, its embassy in Washington, D.C., and its consulate in New York City have gone unanswered.
Markopoulos expressed surprise at how effortlessly he stumbled upon the leaked data, stating, “It just appeared as a Google result, and I wasn’t even intending on finding it. I was searching for an SQL error, and it unexpectedly emerged as the second result.” SQL is a language designed for managing database information.
The exposure of email addresses, phone numbers, and national ID card numbers is deeply concerning. Markopoulos also highlighted the potential risks associated with this type of information, which could be exploited to gain unauthorized access, manipulate applications, delete records, or even view the Birth Registration Record Verification within the web application.
Source: Techcrunch
