2.9 crore Indian job seekers’ data leaked on Dark Web: Report
By Kosha Doshi:-
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,” Cyble said in its blog on Friday.
During these times of lockdown on one hand people from all across the globe are spending more time online to keep themselves busy and entertained; and on the other cybercriminals are taking advantage of this increasing time to benefit from the health crisis. Our fear during this pandemic becomes an opportunity for the cyber criminals to feed and take advantage from our fear. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recently warned the public about suspicious email messages which attempt to take advantage of the COVID -19 emergency situation.
There have been reports of hacking attempts against WHO’s own computer system during this outbreak crisis. Reports suggest cyber criminals might be looking for information in regard to cures, tests and vaccines which they might hold for ransom or disrupt the operability. But why should an individual fear? As people are panicking, they are using internet as a source to obtain whatever information possible for protecting themselves. Individuals search for more and more information on the COVID-19 due to their curiosity but this might be dangerous. Hackers are waiting at the other side, wherein they try to hack into people’s accounts. India has already witnessed several instances of cyber-crimes during this situation.
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.
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It’s informative and quite shaking to know that how the Cyber criminals are taking the advantages of this pandemic covind 19 virus disease.
Very informative u need to be very much aware of such crimes
This situation keeps happening in a matter of a few years but this blog is very interesting on how they used Covid-19!!
Data privacy is one of the great concern during present times. And hacking is becoming common day by day.
India needs strong cyber laws to prevent such situations from taking place in future.
This article helps in keeping people informed about such crimes which is very important for them so that they can take proper precautions.
Well written article. Keep up the good work.
The future of cyber crime and security is this as far as I can understand. With the increased number of people going online, the criminals have a wider pool to choose their targets.
dark web – part of internet non accessible to the people and requiring specific browser to access. The highly risky and the dangerous part of the internet. The article explains the all to know basically about the dark web in easy words.
The threats we are facing are very alarming and at this rate we need better resources and better programs to prevent it effectively before anything much worse happen.
Data privacy is the major problem now a days, as technology is increasing day by day need to be extra protected against spams and need to update all our system use anti virus.
Data privacy is a myth and no one in safe in this internet age. the figures stated in this report are daunting and horrifying. As more and more people are using internet nowadays, it becomes quite easy for cyber criminals to access their data and using that with malicious intention.