What is involved in a massive data breach?
A huge amount of data is involved in the breach, according to PTI (via) Vital PII of around 17 crore individuals, The range of information allegedly sold by cyber criminals behind the crime includes Phone Number, PAN Card Number, Registration Details Details of services like gas and petroleum lines, details of demat accounts, bank details of high net worth individuals, database of applications made by citizens for loans and credit cards, details of debit card holders of private banks and other important information like PII of employees of information technology (IT) service firms and frequent flyer services.
In addition, the identification details of up to 12 million WhatsApp users, and over 1.7 million Facebook users, have been leaked online. These details include login IDs, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, city of residence, age, email addresses and phone numbers, among other information.
For defense personnel, the leaked information that is part of this massive data breach includes rank and designation, email addresses and latest places of posting of over 2.5 lakh individuals. Finally, biographical information and biographies of those who applied for the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) were also part of the breach.
what law enforcement said
According to a statement given to PTI by Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Ravindra, the investigation is still on. However, the police force in the state has already arrested seven members of an alleged gang, which operated from three call centers located in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The criminals reported selling over 140 categories of data and had over 100 buyers for their data.
According to the police, the criminals sold the database of up to 50,000 users for Rs 2,000. Ravindra further confirmed to PTI that the police is in the process of sending notices to telecom service providers and for further investigation the notices are being sent to them. The massive data breach is an amalgamation of multiple leaked databases, police confirmed.
Implications of Data Leak
The massive data breach involved a huge trove of PII, which could be further matched with breached password databases – using which cyber criminals could breach email addresses and social media accounts – among other hacks and leaks. Are. This information can be put together for spear phishing attacks, impersonation, blackmail, and other malicious activities. Such implications could be even worse as with the involvement of defense personnel, such hacks could lead to a breach of sensitive data of national importance – a factor which has also been highlighted by the Cyberabad Police.
