THE BIGGEST DATA LEAK?

81.5 CRORE CITIZENS DATA FOUND ON SALE ON THE DARK WEB FOR ₹65 LAKH

In what is possibly the biggest data leak so far, the bigger question to ask is: Could your identity be among the countless stolen? As cybercriminals continue to exploit the vulnerabilities, is your digital life truly safe from the lurking dangers of the dark web?

According to an online news report on News 18, the COVID-19 test information of more than 81.5Cr citizens with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is up for sale. A ‘threat actor’ whose handle is on X has advertised the database on the dark web. And it involves the records of 81.5 million Indian citizens. The data contains the Aadhar, passport information, names, addresses, and phone numbers. The ‘threat actor’ claims that the data was sourced from IMCR. 

It was the American cyber security and intelligence agency, Resecurity, that noticed the leak through ‘a threat actor’ with the alias ‘pwn0001.’ It posted a thread on Breach Forums on October 9. Giving access to 815 million “Indian Citizen Aadhaar & Passport” records. The threat actor shared spreadsheets containing four large samples of Aadhar data as proof.

It is not the first incident of a data breach happening in India. It has unfortunately become a recurrent trend. The fact that hackers can gain access to your most private and confidential information with a mere click is, undeniably, a cause for deep concern. Before the recent cyberattack on AIIMS, a series of high-profile incidents left countless in shock. Companies such as Zivame, Swachhta platform, RentoMojo, Sun Pharma, BharatPay, and RailYatri have all fallen victim to data breaches, highlighting the growing threats to digital security in the country.