According to the latest status of the hacker's posting on the Breached.to forum, the hacker has not released the secret conversations of the Prime Minister's Office that were "bugged" as scheduled, and several users are replying to the posting to ask when it will be released. Meanwhile, according to Twitter's user status, the hacker's @Indishellgp Twitter account has been deactivated.
Dark Web hackers announce Friday release of 'bugged' secret PMO conversations
As the audio leak scandal continues for a week on social networking sites, experts say data from all government and private websites, including those of senior military and civilian leaders, have been hacked and are available on the dark web.
The potentially embarrassing audio leak allegedly made headlines and also exposed a security breach that turned into a full-blown national security incident as audio clips of conversations between top government figures, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Imran Khan and others, surfaced.
Earlier, the hackers revealed in a social media post that negotiations with the current government for the betterment of the country had ended, and said all the audio would be released on Friday.
According to an image circulating on the Internet, the audios include interactions with journalists, government officials, military personnel, the prime minister's military chief, personal and government interactions, interactions between the first and extended families, conversations related to judicial appointees, contacts with foreign dignitaries and orders from those involved.
Since the first release, hackers have posted numerous tweets warning several military and civilian leaders while the crowd awaits the next leak.
The hacker behind the earlier audio leaks made a shocking disclosure
In a series of tweets, the "hacker," named @Indishellgp, claimed that "of the two Islamic states that do not recognize Israel, the smaller one facilitated the larger one's access to controlled software from the Jewish state. The smaller state is led by a woman."
Pegasus, the spy software developed by an Israeli company, has been in the headlines for months as the "hacker-for-hire" company provides services to intelligence agencies and governments around the world to spy on rivals, journalists, activists and dissidents.
According to a tweet from the "hacker," "officials from the Strategic Plans Division, Signal Corps, ISSRA, ISI and PS-COAS led a secret delegation to smaller countries to formalize the procurement. Equipment and training are part of the agreement. "
"The point here is that the military high command does not believe the ISI is the sole operating agency in this program. This may indicate the military's long-standing concern that the intelligence community is too powerful."
"A backdoor was injected into the victim's device that could be used for surveillance at will. "
"The prime minister's office was never bugged. However, over the next few years; every phone of interest in Pakistan was targeted by Pegasus. Political leaders, executives, provincial/federal lawmakers, senators, members of the judiciary, journalists, secretaries, and even top/middle management were spied on."
The "hacker" further claims that "because of the different political loyalties in the military, a tug-of-war began, with different factions releasing different audio clips to their advantage."
"When a general in a very important position started some kind of aggressive propaganda in support of the current government, he was removed and relocated. This created a void that has not been filled until today." One of the tweets reads.
Finally, the "hacker" stressed that "the military has always had one advantage over civilians: information."
"But now the winds have changed. I have the same audio and material data that the military has been collecting for years. I have everything. Let the games begin."
In an earlier tweet, the "hacker" had warned "Mr. 13" (alluding to an Army general): "Your time is up, General …… ".
The Largest Data Breach in Pakistan's History
Information about sensitive government matters and private conversations between the prime minister and members of his government has apparently been leaked and sold on the dark web in what would be one of the largest data breaches in Pakistan's history.
The data breach was posted on the Breached.to forum, a leaked data distribution forum accessible on both the open and dark web and popular with hackers keen to leak and sell data.
The leaked data - mainly a collection of phone records of Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and an unidentified former prime minister, totaling about 100 hours - was priced at 180 bitcoins, which is a digital currency that equates to more than $3.45 million at current trading prices.
The data, which is 8 gigabytes in size, also includes conversations between the prime minister and "all prominent people, including those who are influential but not powerful," and the Indishell seller has also released four sample conversations, including one already reported in the media between Sharif and an unidentified member of his team The seller also published four samples of conversations, including one already reported in the media between Sharif and an unidentified member of his team, discussing the possibility that a relative of the former might import machinery.
According to analysis of the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) account, the seller does not have any history of posting on the Breached forum. "Looks like he created this account just to post info about these leaks." OSINT Insider tweeted.
Three Awkward Audio Conversations
In the first of three leaked audio conversations, a (allegedly Sharif's) voice can be heard saying that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Vice President Maryam Nawaz has asked him to import machinery from India for a power plant for her son-in-law, Raheel Munir. 's daughter Mehrun-Nisa Safdar was married to Munir in 2015.
"If we do this, we will get a lot of flak when the matter comes before the ECC [Economic Coordination Committee] and the cabinet." The official, who could not be immediately identified, could be heard saying.
In response, the prime minister's voice is said to have said, "The son-in-law is very close to Maryam Nawaz, please tell her about this very logically and then I will talk to her." The same voices agreed with the view that this was bad for the government and could lead to political trouble.
At the end of the audio clip, which runs just over two minutes, there is a reference to former judge Maqbool Baqir, whose name is believed to be the next head of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The official conveyed to the prime minister the "advice" of two media persons asking him not to consider the former judge for the chairmanship of the regulator because of their contacts with former NAB chief executive Javed Iqbal, also a retired judge appointed by the former PML-N government in 2016. who retired as a judge. The exchange helps set a timeline for the alleged audio, as there was news about the NAB chief's appointment about two months ago.
There is also an audio of a second conversation between Sharif and Nawaz revealing an awkward exchange directed at Finance Minister Miftah Ismail, a close aide to the prime minister who has come under fire from rival groups within the party for his inability to rein in rising inflation and the dollar exchange rate.
Nawaz said, "He [Ismail] is not taking responsibility […] says strange things on TV and people make fun of him for it […] He doesn't even know what he's doing." . Sharif said, "He obviously cut corners. "
Uncle, he doesn't know what he's doing," Nawaz said. "Because she wants the return of Ishaq Dar, the former finance minister and her confidant. Nawaz has publicly stated that she disagrees with the decision to raise gasoline and electricity prices, claiming that she does not own such decisions whether her party is in the government or not.
The third video involves the prime minister, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan and Economic Affairs Ministry Ayaz Sadiq on Pakistan People's Party MP's resignation from the National Assembly.
Pakistan's cyber security questioned
The PTI, however, has raised too many questions about the cyber security of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), with the party's senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry saying the way data is sold on the dark web shows the state of cyber security in the country.
"This is a failure of our intelligence agencies, especially the Intelligence Bureau. Clearly, the important discussion of security and diplomatic issues is now in everyone's hands except politics." He tweeted.
Shireen Mazari, a former rights minister and PTI MP, said one of the conversations showed that one of the conversations showed the groundwork being laid for Dar's return.
"The leaked audio certainly reveals the influence of the criminal Nawaz Sharif and his convicted daughter in running this imported government, who are themselves a bunch of crooks." She said.
"This audio leak is a much more serious problem than it seems. Imagine if hostile countries were bidding for it," Jibran Ilyas, a member of the party's social media team, said in a series of tweets.
Journalist Mubashir Zaidi questioned the government's inaction on the matter, noting that "if such sensitive conversations were leaked in any other country, the head of their intelligence agency would have resigned by now.