The data of 815 million citizens of India for sale via breach of Covid19 data records
Take action: With big data comes big responsibility. This incident will probably be the ultimate record breaker of data breaches.
Learn More
The details of 815 million people held by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) are reportedly being offered for sale by hackers on the dark web.
An individual using the alias 'pwn0001' claimed to have access to 815 million records of Indian citizens, a significant portion of India's total population of approximately 1.486 billion. As evidence, 'pwn0001' provided samples of the data, including valid Aadhaar IDs.
Update - The database was advertised as containing Aadhaar and Passport details of Indian citizens. However, 'pwn0001' says that only 10 per cent of the data includes Aadhaar details and only a few thousand records have passport details. The hacker revealed that he is now trying to sell this database for $80,000 to recover their investment.
This incident is potentially the largest data leak the country has witnessed. Due to the severity of the situation, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India's leading investigative agency, is expected to investigate once a formal complaint is lodged by ICMR.
The individual advertising the data on the dark web claims the information includes:
- Aadhaar (personal ID) and passport details, (see update above)
- names,
- contact numbers,
- addresses.
This hacker alleges that this data was extracted from the Covid-19 testing records maintained by ICMR.
Although ICMR has not responded to inquiries regarding the breach, it's understood that the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-In) has communicated to ICMR about the situation. Preliminary assessments show that the sample data available for sale aligns with ICMR's actual records.
In a similar incident, the India CoWIN vaccine portal was reported to leak data and was subsequently published via a Telegram bot. That particular leak remains disputed by government officials, since they claimed that the origin of the leak is not that particular database.
Update - the threat actor that claims responsibility for this attack is offering to sell the entire Aadhaar and Indian passport database for a considerable sum of $80,000
