A very famous and powerful hacking group of Nepal yesterday announced that they have hacked the Nepal Telecom servers. Nepal Telecom servers hacked is a serious issue. Hackers also claim that the database is in their control. The group named Anonymous #opnep posted a photo with a list of mobile phone numbers. They said that they are watching NTC and the corruption. The group stated that they aren’t against the Nepali citizen but they are against the corruption and the government. As per hackers, vulnerable Nepal Telecom servers hacked are compromised now they have access to customer information.
Nepal Telecom Servers Hacked by Anonymous #opnep
Anonymous #opnep posted images on their Facebook page. The group said that they will provide the information or details related to the customer’s mobile phone number. They were providing personal details stored in the database as per users’ requests from private messages on Facebook. The group also regularly defaces many Nepali governmental websites. They also hack other websites and bring many facts to the surface. This incident proves that the NTC servers are very vulnerable and in a weak state.
Also Read: Latest NTC Data Pack, Price, Subscription Details
Hackers say that they aren’t going to take down the servers. This is because that would eventually be the loss of NTC, government, and common people. Hackers just want to show how vulnerable NTC servers and systems are. They are providing users with proof of it as well. They want the authorities to fix such security issues, and holes and make the system better. Nepal Telecom hasn’t said anything official on this matter.
NTC Hack and Service Issues
Group also said that they are monitoring the low bandwidth being transferred through ADSL in name of broadband. Therefore it seems they are very concerned about the internet speed service as well. In addition, Nepal is the second country with the world’s slowest internet connections. It is obvious that the company needs a serious overhaul to maintain its competitiveness in the market. They are losing customers in broadband very fast and they need something new to overcome it. Regarding ADSL, we also have published an article regarding ADSL connection problems, downtime, and solution.
In our own inspection, we found some problems in ADSL speed, uptime, activation period, security issues in the customer care page, and internal page link problem.
The customer care interface is a very sensitive part of the site because people can control their bandwidth and other option of the service. This page has a login interface with a problematic SSL certificate. The SSL certificate is not matching the site and the browser shows an invalid error. This is a big security issue. The notification itself says that it is not strong and other people can view the information transfer.
Also, the user ID and password can be easily guessed. If anyone guesses the credentials of a volume-based user, they can even control bandwidth. We also looked at the link to the telephone directory from the official site. The search function used to work fine a few years ago but isn’t working now. In addition to all this, the site is not quite updated.
Also Read: Nepal Telecom GSM Postpaid NT Pro Service
Aftermath of Attack
Nepal Telecom recently claimed that it wasn’t a hack. Instead, it was unauthorized access to the records from a private SIM distribution center. Anonymous #opnep said that the security vulnerability has been patched. However, it is now clear that NTC needs a good audit and system maintenance. Last time the system couldn’t handle high traffic of balance recharge. Therefore NTC was giving bonus recharges to compensate and make users happy.
This is the problem with many of the Nepali websites and mainly government sites. They seriously need to maintain and reinforce security. The hackers are always pointing out these security issues so they should be fixed. By learning from the accidents and attacks, the companies and authorities should act swiftly toward fixing the problem and making the system strong for the future. Nepal telecom servers can are constantly at risk of attack. They are of the biggest telecom operators. Therefore they should be on top of the security games more than ever. Any compromise of Nepal’s biggest telecom network is a matter of national security so we hope they prepare the system well.
