Cyberabad police serve notices to 11 organisations over data theft of 66.9 crore persons

The Cyberabad Police here has issued notices to as many as 11 organisations, including three banks, a social media giant and an Information Technology services company, asking their representatives to appear before it in connection with a breach of data of 66.9 crore persons across the country, a senior police official said on Sunday.

The Cyberabad Police on Saturday said they arrested one person, Vinay Bhardwaj, who was allegedly involved in stealing, holding and selling personal and confidential data of 66.9 crore individuals and organisations belonging to 24 states and eight metropolitan cities, maintained in 104 categories.

The accused person was found in possession of the data of students of edu-tech organisations as well as the GST details of persons and companies, and the consumer/customer data of major organisations such as road transport corporations of various states, major e-commerce portals, social media platforms and fintech companies.

The 11 organisations to whom the notices were issued include two PSU banks and one private bank, a social media giant, an IT services company, an online grocery seller, a digital payments app and an online insurance platform, police said.

The 11 organisations' representatives have been told to appear before the police during the next one week to furnish details on how the companies maintained their databases, what procedures and policies were followed in this regard and who could access the data. This could help investigators ascertain how the database was leaked and accessed by an "unauthorised" person, among other relevant details, police said.

The arrested accused was operating through a website, 'InspireWebz', at Faridabad, Haryana and selling databases to clients through cloud drive links, police said.

In March, Cyberabad Police arrested seven people of a gang who were allegedly involved in the theft and sale of sensitive data of the government and important organisations, including details of 2.55 lakh defence personnel as well as the personal and confidential data of about 16.8 crore citizens across the country.