Millions of Airtel numbers with Aadhaar details and user data likely leaked, were accessible on web
Millions of Airtel numbers with Aadhaar details and user data likely leaked, were accessible on web
Mumbai Feb 02 , 2021 :
Over two million Airtel numbers along with users details like the address and Aadhaar numbers reportedly leaked in a data breach and were available on the web.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Hackers allegedly leaked data of 2.5 million Airtel subscribers.
- Airtel says the claims made by the hacker group has glaring inaccuracies.
- The websites that hosted the leaked numbers and details are no longer accessible.
recent leak that reportedly saw telephone numbers alongside personal details like address, city, Aadhaar card number, and gender details being up for sale on the web.
India Today Tech has seen the details of the data dump and has verified that many numbers part of it do belong to Airtel customers.
In total hackers allegedly put out details over 2.5 million Airtel users.
However, they were claiming that they had details of all Airtel users in India and that they wanted to sell the data.
The information has been revealed by Rajshekhar Rajaharia, an Internet security researcher.
India Today Tech learns from him that the hackers even communicated with Airtel security teams and then tried to blackmail the company and extort $3500 in Bitcoins from it.
However, it seems that the hackers failed and in the frustration, they put up the data on sale on the web, by creating a website for it and showing a sample of the user details that they had.
This website is no longer available. India Today Tech learns that the data may not have been leaked from Airtel's systems or servers.
Instead, it could have been leaked from other sources, possibly the government agencies, which get access to some of the telecom data for security purposes.
This is likely to be why the leaked 25 lakh -- 2.5 million -- numbers belong to subscribers in the J&K region.
According to Rajaharia, the hackers allegedly uploaded details of 2.5 million Airtel subscribers as a sample in January 2021 and tried to "extort money" from the company. " Everything was posted on the web... not on the dark web," he said.
