NID server back online after hours

The National Identity (NID) card server, which was undergoing maintenence since morning, came back online some time in the afternoon. 

The site was shut down on Wednesday (16 August) morning due to maintenance work and it came back online in the afternoon, AKM Humayun Kabir, director general of the NID Registration Wing of the Election Commission (EC), told reporters at the EC building on Wednesday. 

The director general said that the NID service was stopped mainly for maintenance and security purposes. It was done to ensure there was no risk of the server being hacked, he added.

He also said, "About 171 institutions and common citizens get services from here. We carried out the maintenance workd for the safety of all people. No threat was found. Now the server is open and service is being provided from the server."

Regarding not giving any announcement before stopping NID service, he said, "We informed the 171 institutions which take service from here. However, no separate announcement has been made for the general public, because it could have caused panic."

Previously he said, "We are actually checking the server step by step. This takes some time. There is no threat of our server being hacked. Our server is completely secure at the moment."

The official further said: "But we are trying to find out whether any kind of negotiation has been done by any of our partners. If this happens we will take action against them and we will stop all of their services. That is why we are checking each and every aspect of the server step by step."

Meanwhile, the Covid-19 vaccination app, Surokkha, has been down for more than 12 days.

Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMC) recently lodged a complaint with the police that the Covid-19 vaccine registration app "Surokkha" had been hacked. But after preliminary investigation, the police said the app is safe and someone inside the CMCH has been sending fake messages regarding vaccination.