Data of 81.5 crore Indian compromised, ICMR possible at epicenter

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In what is being touted as the biggest data leak in the country in recent times, a hacker, identified as pwn0001 has put up the personal data of about 81.6 crore Indians for sale. The dataset, which includes name, phone numbers, address, Aadhar and passport details, is available for $80,000. According to media reports, the data has been sourced from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). 

While the main source of leak currently remains unknown, experts estimate that this data was collected by ICMR while it was testing for Covid-19. The breach was first flagged by Resecurity, an American cyber security and intelligence agency. Reports suggest that the hacker also posted about this transgression on the Breach Forums on 9th October. Notably, the leaked database is very comprehensive, offering personal details such as name, fathers name, gender, district, state etc. 

Cyber security experts are recommending that citizens immediately lock their Aadhaar biometrics. This can be done either via visiting the UIDAI site, or through the app. 

There has been no official word by ICMR on the same. However, this is not the first time the government’s digital infrastructure has been subjected to such infringements. A few months ago, a hacker going by the name of Lucius had also threatened to leak 1.8 terabytes of sensitive data related to an unnamed Indian internal law enforcement agency. 

An investigation by the comptroller and auditor general of India last year had also noted that UIDAI was seriously lacking in terms of safeguarding their data vaults.