Reportedly NTC server was hacked by a Chinese group. While not confirmed, hints lead to the Chinese origin for the breach into Nepal’s state-backed telco. NTC has shut down its server to subdue the higher threat, several local media reports.
According to NTC’s spokesman Rajesh Joshi, ‘We have not deciphered the identity of the hackers. We switched off the server to save our data after we received information of a possible interference into our server.’
Our Main Server Safe: NTC
Apparently, Chinese hackers gained access to Oracle GlassFish Server operated by NTC and collected Call Data Record (CDR). However, the telco claims its call data are safe.
NTC’s Managing Director Dilli Ram Adhikari says the company’s main server is secure. Speaking to reputed outlets, he said, ‘Hackers might have breached into a dated server of CDMA. The company’s team of expert technicians are looking into the matter to trace the culprits.’ Our main server is protected by a highly secure firewall and remains safe.’
Check out: CDMA Network to Shut down
Chinese Group Behind The Hack?
It is not yet established that the Chinese were behind the attack on NTC’s server. However, the Chinese group Tag-22 is alleged to have been responsible for the breach. Hackers used Advanced Persistent Threat 41 and Advanced Persistent Threat 71 and Backdoor Weapon.
China has often well-guarded the company on a state level which has encouraged them to launch attacks on foreign companies over the years. This led to believe that the Chinese may have been behind this attack on NTC.
The infamous Tag-22 group has hacked and even put on sale telecom-related data belonging to countries such as Taiwan and the Philippines.
Some media reports this event to link with NTC’s recent network failure in the morning hours of Ashad 9, which might have been down due to a foreign breach into its system.
NTC had to come forward with an apology and the workers’ union even demanded a thorough investigation into the issue. The network outage had lasted for 2 hours and affected voice calls on GSM mobile service.
Chinese states have often incurred the wrath of foreign states for a supposedly encouraging state-level breach which it has categorically denied. For now, there is no proof that the Chinese group was behind the group but the leads hint there.
Update on February 15, 2021: Ntc now officially declines the hacking of their server with a statement and announces of all data in the server to be safe.
Hacking into telecom means a huge swatch of user data would be vulnerable for sinister use. NTC will have to be more cautious in the coming days to protect user data in the future. Let’s hope its main server is as safe as it claims. If you have any reservations regarding the hack on NTC’s server, let us know in the comments below.
