New Delhi: An enormous knowledge breach that has implications for nationwide safety was unearthed by Cyberabad Police right here, who arrested seven folks of a gang allegedly concerned within the theft and sale of delicate knowledge of the federal government and necessary organisations, together with particulars of defence personnel in addition to the private and confidential knowledge of about 16.8 crore residents. The accused individuals have been discovered promoting greater than 140 completely different classes of knowledge, which embrace delicate info similar to particulars of defence personnel and the cell numbers of residents and NEET college students, amongst others, Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra informed reporters right here on Thursday.
Seven knowledge brokers have been arrested from Delhi, police mentioned including that the accused had been working by three firms (name centres) in Noida and different locations. So far it has been discovered that the accused bought knowledge to at the least 100 fraudsters. Investigations are nonetheless on, police mentioned.
Sensitive knowledge of defence personnel containing their ranks, electronic mail ids, place of posting, and so forth was discovered obtainable with the accused, Commissioner Raveendra mentioned. “This will have serious national security implications. The data of defence and government employees can be used for espionage; to impersonate them and commit serious offences that may jeopardise national security. We are in the process of finding out how this data got leaked and who are the insiders who are doing it,” he added.
The accused have been additionally discovered promoting info in classes similar to Energy and Power sector, PAN card knowledge, Government workers, Gas and Petroleum, HNIs (High Net-worth Individuals), demat accounts, pupil databases, ladies databases, knowledge of people that have utilized for loans and insurance coverage, and bank card and debit card holders (of personal banks), WhatsApp customers, Facebook customers, IT organisation workers, frequent flyers and so forth.
The arrested accused have been promoting the information by a search engine firm and related platforms, police mentioned. These accused aggregated the information leaked from completely different organisations and having registered themselves as service supply brokers bought the information to cyber criminals after sending them pattern knowledge, police mentioned.
The matter got here to gentle after a grievance was lodged with the Cyber Crime wing of Cyberabad Police in regards to the sale and buy of confidential and delicate knowledge, whilst police had additionally been investigating how cyber criminals have been gaining access to knowledge.
The knowledge of NEET college students, with their names, cell quantity and their residential tackle, was additionally discovered with the accused. A PAN card database containing delicate info on the revenue, electronic mail ids, cellphone numbers, tackle of residents was additionally discovered.
Government workers’ names, cell numbers, classes, dates of delivery and so forth have been additionally present in a database, aside from a listing of Gas and Petroleum firms with related particulars of their employees, Raveendra mentioned. As many as 1.2 crore WhatsApp customers and 17 lakh Facebook customers had additionally been focused within the knowledge theft, with info on login id, IP, metropolis, age, electronic mail id, cellphone quantity and so forth discovered within the possession of the accused, police mentioned.
Further, a cell quantity database of three crore people, in all probability leaked from telecom service suppliers, with order quantity, service begin date, phase particulars, billing particulars account quantity, SIM quantity and so forth was additionally discovered, which can be utilized for committing varied crimes, the Commissioner mentioned. The delicate knowledge that has been leaked can be utilized for unauthorised entry to necessary organisations and establishments. The knowledge associated to PAN card can be utilized to commit critical monetary offences. It is getting used to commit numerous cybercrimes whereby the perpetrators achieve the boldness of victims by disclosing such info, police added.
