UPDATE [2020/05/16 7:45 PM NPT]: The leaker has published yet another article in Medium with links to around 5,000 personal data consisting of names, phone numbers, and addresses. He has gone on to add that if not taken seriously by the Government of Nepal another 500 personal information will be leaked in intervals of every 3 days. After looking at it we can confirm that the leaked database consists of information of Smart Cell users only.
Original Article [2020/05/16 3:08 PM NPT]
An anonymous Twitter handle, “Lanpan Khyāh” has leaked the data of around 500 random Nepali citizens. The data has been leaked through an article in Medium, which mentions the Government of Nepal to be blamed for this.
The article, which is written by “Justice For Nepalese Journalists”, states the main motive behind this leak is to provide justice for Nepali journalists, of which one was violently put behind the bars by Nepal Police for violating lockdown, even if he had the pass. The other two journalists, tested positive for COVID-19, were sent to quarantine owing to a false or tampered medical report prepared by “Governmental institution”, despite not showing any proper symptoms, just to shut the journalists’ movement in Birgunj, as per the Medium article.
The Medium article further depicts that the leaker has leaked the data of 500 random peoples, out of which there are address details of 250 random peoples, while the rest of the details are to prove the legitimacy of the data, though he has not mentioned the source of it. The list includes the victims’ names, phone numbers, and addresses.
The article also mentions that if Nepal Government does not “respond to this situation ethically in favor of the journalists within 3 days”, double the amount of data will be disclosed. The leaker, as said, will further leak double the data in intervals of every 3 days if the Government fails to take proper action against those who are misusing their power to silence the journalists.
Data breach in Nepal lately has upsurged as this is not the first time someone has breached and leaked the data of the public. Recently, Vianet, one of the leading ISPs of Nepal was a victim of a data breach, whilst Foodmandu, a Kathmandu based food delivery service, had to face the same fate a couple of months ago.
