The federal government has sent a cybersecurity advisory to ministries and provincial governments to prevent data leaks through the dark web, it emerged on Friday.<\/p>\n
The dark web, or darknet, is a part of the internet that lies beyond the reach of search engines. Users are largely anonymous and untraceable and mainly pay with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.<\/p>\n
The advisory, titled \u2019Leakage of Sensitive Data on Dark Web (Advisory No 53), noted that the anonymity offered by the dark web makes it a \u201cgateway to the world of crime\u201d and constitutes 96 per cent of total data available on the internet.<\/p>\n
\u201cDark\/deep web is being used by nefarious mindsets, including criminals, terrorists, Hostile Intelligence Agencies (HIAs) and non-state actors,\u201d it stated.<\/p>\n
The advisory lists some of the crimes carried out on the dark web, including:<\/p>\n
Hacking
\nBlackmailing
\nWebsite defamation
\nData dumps
\nAccessing personal information of citizens and key appointments via leaked databases
\nFinancial scams via leaked banking details
\nHoney pots to trap civilians and government officials
\nTerror financing and money laundering
\nDisseminating propaganda
\nRecruiting terrorists
\nCross-border collaboration and terrorist support
\nDrug, human and weapons trafficking
\nBounty hunting and ransom attacks<\/p>\n
\u201cUsers are advised to put in efforts to protect personal and official data from being exposed to cybercriminals and further leakage on hacking forums\/dark web,\u201d the advisory stated.<\/p>\n
It provided a list of guidelines to ensure data safety. These are:<\/p>\n
Stay away from exploring dark web sources
\nRemain vigilant while surfing the web
\nNever forward, or click a link or pictures shared on email or WhatsApp by unknown sources
\nApply two-factor authentication on all email, social media and banking accounts.
\nNever share One-Time Password (OTP) with anyone
\nDo not install untrusted software or applications (without digital signature) from third-party sources on Windows and Android\/i0S phone
\nDo not install unnecessary plugins on browsers except Adblock and Adblock plus
\nAlways install and regularly update reputed antimalware\/anti-virus solution on both Windows\/Android phones
\nAll under command be sensitised not to share personal information, passwords or sensitive information on phone calls
\nPhishing calls from unknown numbers must not be trusted and reported to PTA if found suspicious
\nTo counter social engineering\/scam phone calls, always ask relevant questions from the caller and carefully judge him\/her to ensure authenticity<\/p>\n
The advisory comes months after several audio recordings of conversations between top political leaders, including former premier Imran Khan and incumbent PM Shehbaz Sharif, were\u00a0leaked\u00a0online.<\/p>\n
Reports at the time stated that a hacker or a collective \u2014 that has been involved in previous cyberattacks on behalf of neighbouring India \u2014 listed for sale on the dark web a data dump containing conversations from the Pakistani PM Office.<\/p>\n
Users claimed that the clips leaked online were shared by the alleged hacker(s) as proof that they were indeed in the possession of sensitive data and set a minimum bid of around 18 BTC, or Etherscan tokens, worth around $345,000.<\/p>\n
Some users also suggested that the purported hacker(s) \u2014 who originally posted sometime in August 2022 \u2014 claimed to have more records, including conversations of both the current and former prime ministers. However,\u00a0Dawn\u00a0was unable to independently verify these claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The federal government has sent a cybersecurity advisory to ministries and provincial governments to prevent data leaks through the dark web, it emerged on Friday. The dark web, or darknet, is a part of the internet that lies beyond the reach of search engines. Users are largely anonymous and untraceable and mainly pay with cryptocurrencies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":111490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111489"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111491,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111489\/revisions\/111491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}