According to a report from News18, it is being described as the largest data leak in the country. Allegedly sourced from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), personal information of over 81.5 crore Indians has been exposed online.

The report highlights that Resecurity, an American cybersecurity and intelligence agency, initially detected the data leak. According to the cyber firm, an individual using the pseudonym 'pwn001' initiated a discussion on Breach Forums, a platform self-described as a prominent hub for data breaches and discussions. This thread on Breach Forums purportedly granted access to records of 815 million (81.5 crore) Indian citizens.

To put this into perspective, the leaked data encompasses approximately ten times the entire populations of countries such as Iran, Turkey, and Germany, which rank as the 17th, 18th, and 19th most populous nations globally. India, in contrast, is the world's most populous country, with a population of 1.43 billion people.

What kind of information was exposed?

'pwn001,' who also had a presence on X (formerly Twitter), advertised the leak of Aadhaar and passport details, in addition to names, phone numbers, and addresses. The hacker claimed that this information was extracted from the Covid-19 test records of individuals registered with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). As evidence, 'pwn001' shared spreadsheets containing several substantial data samples, including fragments of Aadhaar information, which, upon examination, were confirmed as valid Aadhaar card IDs.

Steps taken to address the situation

While there has been no official response from ICMR or the government as of yet, the report suggests that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is likely to investigate the matter once it receives a formal complaint from ICMR. Furthermore, various high-ranking officials from different agencies and ministries have been involved in managing the situation. To mitigate the damage, the necessary Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been put into action.