FIA awaits data access for probes
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is facing problems in processing thousands of complaints of crimes and fraud because of not receiving required data from mobile phone companies and lack of agreements for mutual legal assistance with social media service providers.
The complainants visiting the FIA offices are informed repeatedly that the system for acquiring the data has not started working.
According to FIA sources, after any complaint of a cybercrime, including harassment, banking fraud, threats, blackmailing or cheating with the help of electronic devices, the managements of Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Hotmail or YouTube are contacted for evidence.
But the government has not yet entered into a mutual legal assistance treaty with the organisations. There is no certainty whether the record that the FIA needs for investigating the cases would be received immediately or in years.
On the other hand, officials concerned say the biggest problem for the FIA is that the mobile phone companies operating in the country do not ensure storage of complete customer data and a large number of SIMs are being operated illegally.
Many mobile phone companies with millions of devices are running on an internet protocol on which it is impossible to store their data.
Because of these reasons, the FIA Cybercrime Wing does not receive the record from the relevant companies to investigate cases of fraud or harassment.
As the phone network companies do not have a record of the customers, the investigation is hampered and the accused manage to get relief from courts, flee the country or start using a SIM of another network.
The absence of incriminating record from the phone companies, despite the availability of data from Instagram, Google, Facebook and WhatsApp, often helps the accused to get bail.
According to sources, the Lahore FIA Cyber Wing is facing problems in investigating about 4,500 complaints because of the procedural issues. In some cases, the higher courts have also expressed displeasure over the FIA’s failure to complete investigations of cases in years. The sources said the Supreme Court had also been informed about the issues affecting the investigations.
According to FIA sources, government officials have met representatives of organisations like Facebook, Google, YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram and urged them to set up their offices and take steps to enter into mutual legal assistance treaties (MLAT) with the relevant agencies. However, the companies have not yet set up their offices in the country. If there is a treaty for mutual legal assistance, the FIA will immediately take action on the thousands of pending applications related to cybercrime, the sources said.
A victim of sexual harassment, Rizwana, said it had been a year since she was blackmailed through her forged inappropriate photographs on Facebook and WhatsApp but no action was taken. FIA officials said they did not get the record from Facebook and Hotmail. She said she had not been provided relief because of lack of access to the online record.
According to a citizen named Amjad, who was cheated through a money transfer fraud, the SIM on which the branchless banking account was opened was issued illegally and there was no record of it. The FIA says that action will be taken when the record related to the case is provided.
When contacted, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) spokesman Khurram Mehran said the organisation took immediate legal action on complaints of fraud. He said action against illegal SIMs was under way continuously.
The spokesman said the PTA had launched an awareness campaign, advising the people to be careful to avoid the misuse of their fingerprints and identity cards. There is still room for improvement in the system and the PTA is committed to ensuring the security of data, then spokesman added. Soon the biometric system will be updated to make it easier as well as more secure.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 14th, 2021.