Unprecedented Data Breach Rocks India
In what is being described as potentially the largest data leak case in India’s history, personal information of more than 81.5 crore Indian citizens has been exposed to the public domain. This startling revelation, allegedly sourced from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), was first reported by News18, sending shockwaves through the nation’s cybersecurity landscape.
The Breach Unveiled
The alarming breach was initially detected by Resecurity, an American cybersecurity and intelligence agency. According to Resecurity, an enigmatic ‘threat actor’ known by the alias ‘pwn001’ took to Breach Forums, a self-described “premier Databreach discussion and leaks forum.” There, ‘pwn001’ provided unauthorized access to records of a staggering 815 million (81.5 crore) Indians.
To put the enormity of this breach into perspective, the compromised data represents approximately ten times the combined populations of Iran, Turkey, and Germany—nations ranked 17th, 18th, and 19th in global population rankings. Notably, India, with a population of 1.43 billion, stands as the world’s most populous country.
What Information is at Stake
The breach has laid bare a treasure trove of sensitive data, including Aadhaar and passport information, as well as individuals’ names, phone numbers, and addresses. ‘pwn001,’ the purported hacker, claims that these details were extracted from the Covid-19 test records of citizens registered with ICMR. As damning evidence, ‘pwn001’ released spreadsheets containing fragments of Aadhaar data, which have been verified as valid Aadhaar card IDs upon scrutiny.
Emergency Response and Investigations Underway
As of now, neither ICMR nor the government has issued an official statement in response to the breach. However, reports suggest that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is poised to initiate an inquiry into the matter, provided it receives a formal complaint from ICMR.
In a bid to mitigate the damage and secure the compromised data, top officials from various government agencies and ministries have been mobilized. Additionally, a comprehensive Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been put into action to address the immediate fallout of this alarming breach, which has left the nation grappling with a grave national security concern.
