In addition to India’s rising scam call threat, Airtel India customers could be at an additional risk.
As per the latest information, personally identifiable information of more than 375 million Airtel India users has been allegedly leaked on the dark web.
The dataset is being sold through a popular data breach website called BreachForums.
According to the sample dataset provided on the website, the information set includes:
- Mobile number
- Name
- Date of birth
- Father’s name
- Local address
- Permanent address
- Alternative number
- Email ID
- Gender
- Nationality
- Connection type
- Date of SIM activation
- Aadhar number
- Photo ID proof details
- Address proof details
The data breach is claimed by a user called xenZen.
The dataset is available for $50,000 to be paid in XMR, a cryptocurrency known as Monero.
The info on the data leak was announced by a Twitter user who goes by the username @DarkWebInformer.
If the threat actor’s claims are true, the data leak puts Airtel India customers at considerable risk, especially given that the Aadhar number (the unique identification system in India) has been leaked alongside other info, such as the date of birth.
The breach is reported to have happened in June 2024. xenZen, the threat actor responsible for the theft, also claimed the Indian Ministry of Affairs data breach. This breach consisted of information of over 200,000 users of the eMigrate portal.
Airtel India, however, has denied any such breach.
“Basis preliminary investigation we can confirm that there has been no data breach whatsoever of Airtel’s system,” an Airtel spokesperson said.
There has been a report alleging that Airtel customer data has been compromised. This is nothing short of a desperate attempt to tarnish Airtel’s reputation by vested interests. We have done a thorough investigation and can confirm that there has been no breach whatsoever from… pic.twitter.com/1b2vs2ud4I
— Bharti Airtel (@airtelnews) July 5, 2024
They also questioned the authenticity of the hacker, highlighting that xenZen has not shown viable proof for the breach.
Update: Breachforums have removed xenZen’s post now.
A threat actor is claiming to sell the records of 375 million Airtel India customers.
There are red flags indicating that it might be the data previously stolen in a breach in 2019, where personal details like names, phone numbers, email addresses, and Aadhaar card numbers of… pic.twitter.com/Fo1vFz90cL
— HackManac (@H4ckManac) July 5, 2024
Researchers at HackManac believe that this can be old data from a breach in 2019, in which 320 million customer records’ personal details, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and Aadhaar card numbers, were exposed due to a system vulnerability.
