According to a report by Resecurity, a cybersecurity company in the United States, the personal information of approximately 815 million (or 81.5 crores) Indians has been exposed on the dark web. This information was reported by Business Standard.
The report indicates that information such as names, phone numbers, addresses, Aadhaar, and passport details are available for sale online.
In a blog post, Resecurity mentioned, “On 9 October, a threat actor going by the name โpwn0001โ posted a thread on Breach Forums brokering access to 815 million “Indian Citizen Aadhaar & Passport” records. Notably, Indiaโs entire population is over 1.486 billion people.”
The company also mentioned that their HUNTER (HUMINT) unit investigators got in touch with the person behind the threat and found out that they were ready to sell the complete Aadhaar and Indian passport database for $80,000.
According to the news, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is looking into the breach, which was initially uncovered by a hacker known as “pwn0001.”
Another report from News18 suggests that the data that was compromised could be from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) database.
A hacker on X has also mentioned, “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, and Age.”
โ ๏ธ India Biggest Data Breach
— Shivam Kumar Singh (@MrRajputHacker) October 30, 2023
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
In the past, there have been other instances of data breaches. For instance, in June, the government initiated an investigation when personal information of vaccinated citizens, including important individuals, was reportedly leaked from the CoWin website through a Telegram messenger channel.