COVID-19 and Recent Data Breaches in India

Personal details of about 2.90 crore Indian job seekers have been found dumped on the dark net, raising concerns among cyber crime agencies and experts in India over a massive data breach. The data leak was uncovered on Friday by Cyble, Inc, a U.S.-based cyber intelligence firm founded by global cybersecurity expert Beenu Arora. On Saturday morning, Cyble posted an update on its official blog that the names, addresses and contact numbers belonged to job seekers from cities such as Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Bengaluru. The data is available for free download in a 2.3-gigabyte compressed file, according to the blogpost.

Screenshots of the leaked data, which are in The Hindu’s possession, mention two well-known job portals: Naukri and Times Jobs. The blogpost said, “This breach includes sensitive information such as email, phone, home address, qualification, work experience, etc. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for such personal information to conduct various nefarious activities such as identity thefts, scams, and corporate espionage.”

Mr. Arora told The Hindu that while Cyble hasn’t been able to attribute the source of the leak yet, they can say with a high degree of confidence that the leak appears to have occurred from a resume aggregator service. Mr. Arora said, “A Russian-speaking threat actor is responsible for the leak, and it is likely that the data has been floating on the dark web for some time, unnoticed. it’s possible that the leak was made to get attention and rapport in the dark web markets. This reminds us of the same strategy recently deployed by ShinyHunters, a known cybercriminal responsible for Tokopedia, Unacademy, Wishbone, Mathway, and other leaks.”

ShinyHunters leaked details hacked from Tokopedia, Indonesia’s largest online store, for free and later sold them for millions of U.S. dollars. Spurred by their success, ShinyHunters went on to target at least 10 more servers, including Unacademy, an Indian learning platform. Cyble, in its blogpost, said it has acquired the leaked data and job seekers can register at AmIbreached.com, its data breach monitoring and notification service, to confirm if their information is part of the data. Mr. Arora said, “Based on current analysis, the information is quite detailed and invasive, and a desirable ingredient for cybercriminals.”

Indian cyber crime investigation agencies are also trying to trace the source of the leak and find out more about the hacker, sources confirmed. Balsing Rajput, Superintendent of Police (Maharashtra Cyber), said. “Data breaches have a serious impact on users, and criminals use the leaked data to commit various cyber attacks for financial gains or other motives. We are looking into the matter. Users need to update their passwords, opt for two-factor authentication and conduct regular security checks.” Brijesh Singh, cyber expert and Special Inspector General of Police, said people can find out if their details have been hacked by checking websites like haveibeenpwned.com, which maintain databases of breached data. Mr. Singh said, “If you find that your data has been breached, check your bank and financial statements immediately. If you find any anomaly, report to the bank/wallet/service provider and authorities without delay.”

In a startling revelation, cybersecurity researchers have claimed that a hacker has posted personal details of nearly 2.9 crore Indian job seekers at one of the hacking forums on the Dark Web for free. As part of the regular sweep over the Deep Web and Dark Web, researchers from cybersecurity firm Cyble came across an interesting item, where a threat actor posted 2.3GB (zipped) file on one of the hacking forums. “The leak actually has a lot of personal details of millions of Indians Job seekers from different states,”

This breach includes sensitive information such as email, phone, home address, qualification and work experience etc from job seekers spanning across states, from New Delhi to Mumbai and Bengaluru. Cybercriminals are always on the lookout for such personal information to conduct various nefarious activities such as identity thefts, scams, and corporate espionage. “It appears to have originated from a resume aggregator service given the sheer volume and detailed information,” it added.  Cyble indexed this information at ‘AmIbreached.com; – Cyble’s data breach monitoring and notification platform. “Cyble researchers have identified a sensitive data breach on the darkweb where an actor has leaked personal details of nearly 29 million Indian job seekers from various states. “Cyble’s team is still investigating this further and will be updating their article as they bring more facts to the surface,’ it said in a statement. Cyble said it has acquired the leaked data.

The same cyber security firm earlier exposed that Bengaluru-based edtech firm Unacademy was hacked.  According to Cyble researchers, nearly 22 million Unacademy user accounts were affected and the data was dumped and sold on Dark Web. ‘We would like to assure our users that no sensitive information such as financial data or location has been breached,” said Hemesh Singh, Co- Founder and CTO, Unacademy, in a statement. In April, hackers sold personal data of a whopping 267 million Facebook users for just Rs 41,500 (approximately 500 Euros) that includes email addresses, names, Facebook IDs, dates of birth and phone numbers.  No passwords of the 267 million Facebook users were exposed by the hacker, according to Cyble.