American cybersecurity agency reports massive breach involving Aadhar data
New Delhi: In a concerning revelation, an American cybersecurity and intelligence agency, Resecurity, has reported a massive data leak involving the Aadhaar and passport information of over 81 crore Indians. The alert, issued by Resecurity, stated that on October 9, 2023, a threat actor using the alias ‘pwn0001’ posted a thread on 'Breach Forums', offering access to 815 million "Indian Citizen Aadhaar & Passport" records for sale, highlighting the alarming scale of the breach compared to India's population of just over 1.486 billion people.
According to Resecurity's report, the threat actor was willing to sell the entire dataset for $80,000. The leaked information includes sensitive details such as names, father's names, phone numbers, passport numbers, Aadhaar numbers, ages, genders, addresses, and pin codes of Indian citizens. Resecurity confirmed the validity of Aadhaar Card IDs through the government portal's "Verify Aadhaar" feature.
Additionally, another threat actor named ‘Lucius’ advertised a 1.8 terabyte data leak containing India's internal law enforcement organization's database. This leak included names, phone numbers, addresses, national ID numbers, relative names, Aadhaar IDs, Voter IDs, and driving license records, making it a more extensive collection of personally identifiable information (PII) than the previous breach.
The leakage of such vast amounts of Indian PII data on the 'Dark Web' poses a significant risk of digital identity theft. Cybercriminals could potentially exploit these stolen credentials for various scams, including online banking theft and e-tax refund frauds.
India has witnessed a surge in cyberattacks targeting government platforms. Earlier this year, the government's Parivahan website experienced a data breach, exposing sensitive data and source code of 10,000 users. Additionally, threat actors have been selling Aadhaar and passport numbers of COVID-vaccinated individuals via platforms like Telegram.
India's Aadhaar system, which has issued approximately 1.4 billion IDs since its launch in 2009, stands as one of the world's largest biometric ID programs. Aadhaar serves as a digital ID, facilitating electronic payments, online verification (e-KYC), and compatibility with various financial platforms. As of February 2023, 945 million people, constituting 60% of India’s eligible voters, had linked their Aadhaar cards to their voter IDs.
To address data security concerns, the Rajya Sabha passed the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2023, in August. This legislation aims to safeguard citizens' right to personal information, applying to digital personal data collected both online and offline, as well as data processed outside India for offering goods or services within the country.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Mangaluru: Bajpe police arrests young man for alleged derogatory posts against police
Bajpe: Police have arrested a youth for allegedly posting derogatory and defamatory content against the Bajpe police on social media.
The arrested accused has been identified as Abhishek M. (23), a resident of Katipalla, Surathkal.
According to the police, Abhishek posted a photograph of Bajpe Nisarga Hotel on his Instagram account mr_a_titude_22, alleging that accused persons in a murder case under the jurisdiction of the Bajpe police station were being treated “like royalty” by the police and were being served beef meals from the hotel every day. In his post, he further accused the police of colluding with criminals and misusing their authority, stating that public trust in the police was being betrayed.
Following which, the Bajpe police registered a case and arrested the accused.
Police records reveal that Abhishek is already facing multiple criminal cases. A case of murder, attempt to murder, assault and robbery has been registered against him at the Surathkal police station. At the same time, a robbery case has also been registered at the Kaup police station.
After his arrest, Abhishek was handed over to the custody of the CEN police for further investigation. He was later produced before a court, police said.
