New Delhi: In a massive data breach, personal information of 815 million Indians has been up on the dark web for sale, according to a report by US-based cybersecurity firm Resecurity. The report claimed that details such as Aadhaar and passport information along with names, phone numbers and addresses have been put on sale online.
However, reports suggested that the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) database might have been compromised, given the extensive scope and sensitive nature of the information.
“Securing assets is of importance for businesses in today’s world. The recent incident where the personal information of 815 million Indians was exposed in a data leak highlights the need for companies to take adequate measures,” Sanjay Kaushik, managing director of Netrika Consulting, was quoted as saying by Business Standard.
As per the Resecurity website, an individual on October 9 using the alias “pwn0001” shared a post on BreachForums (a darknet crime forum) offering access to 815 million records containing information on “Indian Citizen Aadhaar and Passport”.
The report said the hacker was willing to sell the entire Aadhaar and Indian passport dataset for $80,000 when contacted by Resecurity.
In a similar incident in August this year, another threat actor known as “Lucius” posted a thread on BreachForums offering to sell a 1.8 terabyte data leak related to an unnamed “Indian internal law enforcement organisation”.
Another incident of such kind was reported in April 2022 when the Comptroller and Auditor General conducted an investigation into the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and discovered that the authority had not effectively regulated its client vendors and safeguarded the security of their data vaults, as stated in a Brookings report.
Since 2009, the UIDAI has been issuing approximately 1.4 billion Aadhaar cards and a report from the Brookings Institution in 2022 highlighted that the ID system ranked among the world’s largest biometric identification initiatives.
Kaushik said that adopting measures like encryption, multifactor authentication and access controls are vital to protect aadhaar data.
A hacker on X has also informed, “India Biggest Data Breach Unknown hackers have leaked the personal data of over 800 million Indians Of COVID 19. The leaked data includes: Name, Father’s name, Phone number, Other number, Passport number, Aadhaar number, Age”.
⚠️ India Biggest Data Breach
Unknown hackers have leaked the personal data of over 800 million Indians Of COVID 19.
The leaked data includes:
* Name
* Father's name
* Phone number
* Other number
* Passport number
* Aadhaar number
* Age#DataBreach #dataleak #CyberSecurity pic.twitter.com/lUaJS9ZPDr— Shivam Kumar Singh (@MrRajputHacker) October 30, 2023
Media reports suggested that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is currently investigating the breach that was discovered by hacker “pwn0001.”
Notably, the data breach has come as a big blow to the Central government, which has been taking steps to digitize the economy and has built digital public infrastructure (DPI) based on the biometric identification number Aadhaar, individuals’ mobile numbers.
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