Centre submits statement in Kerala HC on pleas challenging state govt's contract with US firm

New Delhi, Jun 3: Over 1 lakh scanned copies of Indians' national IDs, including Aadhaar, PAN card and passport, have been put on dark web for sale, cyber intelligence firm Cyble said on Wednesday.

The leaked data seems to have originated from a third party and not from the government system, according to a report by Cyble.

"We came across a non-reputed actor who is currently selling over 1 lakh Indian National IDs on the dark net. With such a low reputation, ideally, we would have skipped this; however, the samples shared by the actor intrigued our interest -- and also the volume. The actor is alleged to have access to over 1 lakh IDs from different places in India," Cyble said.

The personal data leaked by cyber criminals leads to various nefarious activities such as identity thefts, scams, and corporate espionage. Many criminals use the personal details in the IDs to win trust of the people over a phone call for fraudulent activities.

Cyber criminals leak personal data of 2.9 cr job-seeking Indians on dark web for free

The Cyble researchers acquired around 1,000 IDs from the seller and confirmed that the scanned IDs belong to Indians.

"Preliminary analysis suggests that the data originated from a third party, and no indication or artefact is indicating that it came from a government system. At this point, Cyble researchers are still investigating this further -- we are hoping to share an update soon," Cyble said.

The scanned ID documents indicate that the data may have been leaked from a company's data base in the segment where they have to comply with 'Know Your Customer' (KYC) norms.

"Cyble researchers have also learned about a surge in KYC and banking scams -- leaks such as this are often used by scammers to target individuals, especially elderlies," Cyble said.

The cyber intelligence firm has recommended people to refrain from sharing personal information especially financial information over phone, e-mail or SMS.

"Regularly monitor your financial transaction, if you notice any suspicious transaction, contact your bank immediately," the company said.

In May, Cyble showed two instances where personal data of 7.65 crore Indians have been put on sale in the dark web. In one instance, the seller claimed to have sourced data of 4.75 crore Indians from online directory Truecaller and in other, the seller claimed to have sourced from job websites.

Truecaller, however, had denied the claim of breach in its database.

Mumbai, May 10: Air India, which is operating flights to evacuate Indians stranded in foreign countries, have asked its pilots to undertake coronavirus test before they operate such flights, the sources said.

"Five Air India pilots have tested positive for coronavirus. These pilots were tested one after one. We suspect it could be a case of faulty testing kit as well," one of the sources said.

The five pilots fly Boeing 787 planes, the second source said.

Air India spokesperson did not offer any comment.

A senior airline official said the five pilots had not operated any flight in the last three weeks.

"These pilots had operated cargo flights to China prior to April 20," the official said.

Gurugram, Jul 12: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said that the whole world was appreciating India's successful fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking ahead of the mega tree plantation drive of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Officers' Training Academy in Kadarpur village here, the Home Minister also lauded the contribution of security forces in the battle against COVID-19 in the country.

"India is one of the most populous countries. Everyone thought how will a country like India battle COVID-19, there were apprehensions but today the whole world is witnessing how one of the most successful battles against COVID-19 has been fought here," the Home Minister said.

"In India's battle against COVID-19, all of our security forces are playing a huge role, nobody can deny it. Today, I salute these corona warriors. They have proved that they not only know how to fight terrorism but also against COVID with help of people," he added.

The Union Home Minister said that many jawans have given up their lives during the COVID-19 crisis phase and paid tributes to them.

"I have talked to families of those jawans and today once again I thank them, your sacrifice will not go waste. Whenever the history of the human race's fight against COVID-19 is written, the contribution of India's security forces will be mentioned in golden ink," he said.

He also hailed the plantation drive and said that trees planted today should be taken care of by the jawans till they reach maturity, he added the trees chosen for plantation today consisted mostly those which had a long life and would help the generations to come.

Together the CAPFs have targeted to plant around 10 lakh tree saplings across the country today. Heads of all the CAPFs or their representatives were present in the event held at Gurugram.