A look at the data breaches that rocked India in 2021 on World Password Day
With COVID-19, came digitization. With digitization, came contactless services, work from home and, an unforeseen boost in online services. Millions of users started registering for ecommerce, fintech, grocery delivery, healthtech, and more, adding to the burgeoning databases of businesses and organizations.
And with all this, came cybersecurity threats. One after the other, organizations are facing malicious hacks, even as they scramble to contain the damage done.
Read more: Are upskilling and reskilling the answer to India´s dire need for cybersecurity professionals?
In November, last year, even as India´s fintech and healthtech struggled with breaches, cybersecurity firm Kaspersky predicted an increase in Indian cyberattack incidents in 2021. Now, here we are in 2021. Has that prediction come true?
It´s only May and the media has already been abuzz with several cybersecurity hacks. There has been an 845% spike in cyberattacks on mobile devices alone between October 2020 and March 2021, according to Check Point Software Technologies’ Mobile Security Report 2021.
Today, even as the world celebrates World Password Day, let´s look at the worst data breaches so far that have been riling up India´s businesses and organizations.
Juspay
In January, 35 million user accounts were impacted when information that including masked card data and card fingerprints were hacked from a Juspay server using an unrecycled access key. The breach actually occurred in August 2020, however the event came to light only when independent cybersecurity researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia found the data for sale on the dark web for around US$5000.
A payments startup, Juspay partners with the likes of Amazon, Swiggy, MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Freecharge, BookMyShow, Snapdeal, amongst others, processing about 650k transactions every day.
The seller made use of the Telegram messaging app to negotiate prices, which is apparently popular with hackers because of its ability to set self-destruct timers on messages and media
The seller made use of the Telegram messaging app to negotiate prices, which is apparently popular with hackers because of its ability to set self-destruct timers on messages and…
