EC's explanation over information leak of 14,000 journalists

Ahead of the 13th National Parliament elections, the personal information of at least 14,000 journalists has been exposed due to a serious flaw in the Election Commission's (EC) online system. All information including photos, signatures, national identity cards was in the public domain for about two hours.

The Election Commission (EC) has given an explanation in the wake of the 'information leak' of 14,000 journalists. It said that the website had information of the applicants open for some time. However, there was no option to download it.

EC Public Relations Director Ruhul Amin Mallik said that in the face of objections from journalists, their application on the website was closed last Thursday.

Later, on Saturday, the path for observers to apply was also being closed. At that time, those who had previously registered and logged in to their dashboard were also able to see the admin panel. Therefore, the information leak is not correct. Information such as NID and name were visible for some time. But there was no option to download.

He said that no one leaked the information. "Our site was open while we were working. There were no allegations that anyone had done anything wrong with the information by hacking it or any other means."

Many have complained that the website was not created by a professional firm, but rather by AI. In this context, Ruhul Amin Mallik said, "It was created by our own programmers. Can such an important website be created with AI?"

Recently, the EC developed the pr.ecs.gov.bd website. For the first time, the organization was taking applications from media workers and observers through this site to watch the elections.

However, the commission withdrew from that initiative when journalists raised serious objections due to various information supply complications. As a result, this time too, journalist and observer cards will be issued after manually verifying the applications, as before.

According to the previous EC notification, first one had to register on the website with NID and phone number. Once the registration was completed, one had to go to their dashboard and upload the necessary information and documents to complete the application. Many people had already completed that application. Now, there are allegations that the information of those applicants has been leaked.

The EC may give the go-ahead this week for the referendum and parliamentary elections on February 12. This time, 55,500 domestic observers are scheduled to monitor the vote.