New Delhi: The threat of data breaches, where personal information of millions of internet users has been exposed, is real and there have been several instances over the last two years. According to the 2015 Breach Level Index report by Gemalto, India had 20 data breaches in 2015 that resulted in 32.1 million records being exposed. News18 looks at four major cases of data breaches over the last two years.
Indian Railways
In May 2016, it was reported that the ticket-booking website of Indian Railways had been hacked and personal data of around 10 million customers was feared to have been stolen from the servers of the e-ticketing portal. It was reported that IRCTC officials also feared that personal details including phone numbers, date of birth and other such details of its customers had been sold on a CD for Rs 15,000. The Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) denied that their website had been hacked, and claimed that they had not received any indication that a data breach had taken place.
Aadhaar
In March this year, the government had confirmed that Aadhaar number and other sensitive information linked to the document were leaked to the public domain. The Centre for Internet and Society in May said information of as many 1.3 crore Aadhaar holders was leaked to websites, a claim denied by Aadhaar-issuing authority UIDAI. In July, around 210 websites of the central and state government departments were reported to have displayed personal details and Aadhaar numbers of many beneficiaries. The UIDAI removed the details and the government said the leak was not caused due to a breach of its servers.
Hitachi Payment Services
In October 2016, malware reportedly introduced in systems of Hitachi Payment Services enabled criminals to steal financial information of customers of a number of banking institutions including Visa, MasterCard, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and YES Bank. As many as 3.2 million cards were compromised as a result of the breach.
Zomato
In May 2017, a hacker reportedly stole email addresses and password details for 17 millon users of an Indian food delivery app, Zomato. In a statement, Zomato confirmed that no financial information was reportedly compromised.