Massive breach: Aadhaar details of 81.5 cr Indians leaked, put on sale

Aadhaar data, along with passport details, name, father's name, temporary and permanent address details of millions of Indians have been stolen by hackers and put on sale on the dark web.

Hyderabad: In what could possibly be the biggest data leak in the history of India, Aadhaar data of 81.5 crore Indians has been leaked on the dark web, noticed an American cyber security and intelligence agency, Resecurity.

According to a report, the data was allegedly sourced by a hacker going by the name ‘pwn0001’. The stolen data also includes passport details, names, phone numbers, temporary and permanent address details of millions of Indians.

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Resecurity also claims that the hacker has shown some spreadsheets with pieces of Aadhaar data as proof to claim the legitimacy of the stolen data. The company also added that its HUNTER (HUMINT) unit investigators learned that the hackers were willing to sell the entire database for $ 80,000.

A report by News 18 states that the compromised data could have been stolen from the Indian Council of Medical Research database.

Meanwhile, an Indian hacker going by the name @MrRajputHacker on X (formerly Twitter) warned that details of several Indians have been leaked. “India Biggest Data Breach Unknown hackers have leaked the personal data of over 800 millions Indian of COVID 19. The leaked data includes: Name, Father’s name, Phone number, Other number, Passport number, Aadhaar number, Age. (Sic)” the hacker wrote and shared photographs of the spreadsheets used by the alleged hackers as proof.

⚠️ India Biggest Data Breach

Unknown hackers have leaked the personal data of over 800 million Indians Of COVID 19.

The leaked data includes:

* Name
* Father’s name
* Phone number
* Other number
* Passport number
* Aadhaar number
* Age#DataBreach #dataleak #CyberSecurity pic.twitter.com/lUaJS9ZPDr

— Shivam Kumar Singh (@MrRajputHacker) October 30, 2023

While there is no official statement about the same either from the ICMR or the government, media reports state that CBI is likely to probe the matter once it receives a complaint from the ICMR. However, this is not the first time data from Indian govt websites has been breached, as earlier this year, data of vaccinated individuals including VVIPs was breached from the CoWin website on a Telegram channel.