New Delhi: A Pakistani man, claiming to be an army officer, telephoned BSNL’s office in Jaisalmer and sought call details of the Indian military, according to a report in Hindustan Times.
The caller from Pakistan reportedly hacked a Delhi telephone number first and then used it to make a call to the BSNL office and successfully extracted the information he was looking for.
An unsuspecting BSNL staff member, Jaweri Lal, who works in the accounts section, shared the call details with the hacker who is suspected to be a spy for Pakistan.
The district telecom manager at the Jaisalmer BSNL office, Yogesh Bhaskar, confirmed the report to the newspaper and said the incident took place when BSNL had issued a temporary number for the army.
The Pakistani man who said he was an army officer, complained that he had some billing issues with the temporary line and asked Jaweri Lal for army numbers. Lal, who suspected no foul play, provided him with the information, without considering the security risk of giving out such details.
The call took place three months ago when the army was conducting an exercise in Jaisalmer, however the exact date is unknown. The incident came to light only after intelligence officials tracked the call to Pakistan and alerted BSNL authorities about the incident.
Taking cognisance of the incident, security agencies have sent out an alert and all officials posted near the western border have been asked to be wary of such calls. The intelligence wing has also directed BSNL to alert its staff against sharing call details of the army.
