Notice issued to 11 organisations for data breach: Cyberabad

The Cyberabad Police, one of Hyderabad’s three police commissionerates, has issued notices to 11 organisations, including a social media giant, an Information Technology services company, and three banks, among others.

These notices have been sent to the organisations’ representatives, asking them to appear before the police regarding a major data breach that impacted a staggering 670 million people across India.

The police arrested Vinay Bhardwaj, a Faridabad resident, last week for his alleged involvement in stealing, holding, and selling confidential data from individuals and organisations across 24 states and eight metropolitan cities.

As per the police, Bhardwaj utilised a website named ‘InspireWebz’ located in Faridabad, Haryana to vend databases which included sensitive information like edtech students’ data, GST details of individuals and companies, and customer data of significant organisations including road transport corporations, e-commerce portals, and fintech companies. The accused sold these databases to his clients via cloud drive links.

A report by news agency PTI has shed light on the extent of the accused’s activities, revealing that user data from websites like Byju’s, Vedantu, Amazon, Instagram, YouTube, Paytm, and Phonepe was obtained.

This data breach has raised concerns about the security and privacy of personal information online, underscoring the importance of implementing robust data protection and cybersecurity measures by companies to safeguard their users’ personal and confidential information.

The Cyberabad Police’s actions against the accused and their efforts to investigate the organisations involved in the breach reflect the seriousness with which such incidents are being treated by law enforcement agencies in India.