ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi has told the Senate that around 1,500 WhatsApp accounts have been hacked in Pakistan since July 1.
As per tv channel report, Mohsin Naqvi revealed in the Senate meeting that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has recovered some accounts, while work is underway to activate others.
In the details provided to the Senate, the Interior Minister said that the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing (CCW) has received 1,426 complaints regarding hacked accounts since July 1.
According to Mohsin Naqvi, these figures do not include users who have not yet filed a complaint about their hacked accounts.
He said that 549 hacked accounts have been restored from the registered complaints, while the Cyber Crime Wing is working on another 877 complaints, out of which 20 cases have been sent for formal inquiry.
Mohsin Naqvi said that 40 complaints have not been resolved, while 817 are still in the verification stage.
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Last year, former Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar had complained to the cybercrime wing that his WhatsApp was hacked.
Sources in the FIA said that they received numerous complaints on the online portal and other forums, but they lacked the required staff to act on these complaints.
They further said that the FIA does not have modern equipment to combat cybercrime.
It may be noted that after security agencies identified malware to access sensitive government documents, government officials were also warned against responding to WhatsApp messages, while some hackers tried to access the mobile phones of senior bureaucrats by pretending to be government officials.
A senior official with knowledge of hacking told Dawn that some joint secretaries and additional secretaries of various ministries received messages from hackers impersonating their heads and other senior officials in various departments.
