Bangladesh’s military intelligence agency, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI), has established a sophisticated operation which secretly hacks the Facebook pages and profiles of opposition groups, political dissidents, student activists and journalists in apparent contravention of the country’s cybersecurity law.

Whistleblowers, who work as civilian contractors for the DGFI, provided Netra News with testimony and documentary evidence on how two special units within the agency — the Signal Intelligence Bureau (SIB) and the Public Relations Monitoring Cell (PRMC) — are engaged in hacking and other cybercrimes. Both these units rely on civilian contractors for “offensive cyber action” and are overseen by ranking military officers.

“We hack Facebook and [engage in other cybercrimes]. [DGFI handlers] set the target, we take action,” one of the whistleblowers told a Netra News editor. “Tough jobs are assigned to a team with access to sophisticated technology.”

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