Four Arrested By Delhi Police In ICMR Data Breach Case; Also Stole Data From FBI, Pakistan's CNIC

ICMR Data Breach:  Delhi Police Cyber Unit arrested four people involved in the selling of Indian citizens' personal information on the dark web. The accused had been actively selling the sensitive data, leaked from the data bank of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), on the dark web.

Earlier, around two months ago, personal details such as Aadhar and COVID-19 vaccination details of more than 80 crore Indians were put on sale on the dark web. The serious breach was flagged in media reports after a Telegram channel was found flushing out people's Aadhar details.

Delhi Police took suo motu cognizance of the data leak earlier this month and registered an FIR, reported The Indian Express quoting a senior officer.

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According to the official, a B.Tech graduate from Odisha and two other accomplices who dropped out of school in Haryana, along with one from Jhansi, were arrested last week. Later, they were produced before a Delhi court, which remanded them in police custody for seven days.

“The arrested persons told investigators during initial questioning that they met on a gaming platform around three years ago and became friends. They then decided to earn quick money,” the officer said.

During the questioning, the suspects stated that they had also pilfered information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC), Pakistan's equivalent of Aadhaar, reported The Indian Express.

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Resecurity, the U.S.-based agency specialising in cybersecurity and intelligence, first detected the breach and wrote in a blog post, “On 9 October, a threat actor going by the name ‘pwn0001’ posted a thread on Breach Forums brokering access to 815 million ‘Indian Citizen Aadhaar & Passport’ records. In early October, Resecurity’s HUNTER (HUMINT) unit identified millions of personally identifiable information records, including Aadhaar cards, belonging to Indian residents being offered for sale on the Dark Web. The total number of the affected citizens is a matter of in-depth investigation by authorities, but the concerning fact that the data is valid and sensitive.”