In the technologically developed era or the digital age has posed to be a hazard to humans once again. Once again, a case of user data being leaked online has surfaced and this time it is the grocery company Big Basket who database of 2 crore users has been stolen. According to the cyber intelligence company Cyble, the hacker has put this data up for sale on the dark web. The data up for sale is priced at 40000 dollars which is around Rs 30 lakhs INR.
After finding out about this data theft, the company has registered a complaint with Bengaluru’s cyber crime cell. On their blog, Cyble revealed that when their research team was conducting a routine web monitoring, they found that Big Basket’s data was up for sale at 40000 dollars in the cyber crime market. The database file is around 15 GB with personal information of around 2 crores users.
The leaked data also consists of passwords
According to the Cyble report, the leaked data consists of user’s name, e-mail address, password, mobile number, address, date of birth, location and even the login IP address. The password that has been spoken about in Cyble’s report refers to the One Time Password (OTP) which we get through SMS in order to login on the site. And this password keeps changing every time a person logs in. As per the report, this data was stolen on 30th October, 2020 and Big Basket’s management has been made aware about this.
However, the users financial data is safe
Commenting on the matter, Big Basket’s spokesperson said that, “We got to know about this huge data theft few days ago, we are wroking with cyber security experts to find out how big this theft is and what is the truth behind this. Also, we are looking for immediate ways of stopping this data theft. We have registered a complaint with the cyber crime cell in Bengaluru and are trying to catch the culprits soon. Customer data’s privacy and security is our top priority, which is why we don’t store their financial data like credit or debit card details and we are sure that their financial data is safe.”
Big Basket is funded by a Chinese company
Chinese company Ali Baba, Mirae Asset Naver Asia Growth Fund and British Government owned CDC group have funded Big Basket. Recently, Big Basket was in talks with other investors too for funding. The grocery company has been trying to get a capital investment of 350-400 million dollars, for the same Big Basket was in talks with Singapore Government’s Temasek, and USA based companies Fidelity and Tibor Capital.
What is the Dark Web?
While the internet is a like a huge sea hosting a variety of fishes, it has some websites that don’t come under the control or authorization of search engines like Google or Bing. Such websites are called the Dark Web or Deep Net. Such websites can only be accessed with the help of specific authorization process, configuration and software. The Information Technology Act, 2000 provides a statutory framework for addressing all types of prevalent cyber crimes in the country. On noticing such crimes, law enforcement agencies take action in accordance with this law.
3 parts of internet access
1. Surface Web: This part of the web is used on a daily basis. It consists of results that we obtain from searching on Google or Yahoo. Such websites are indexed through search engines and it is easy to access them.
2. Deep Web: These websites cannot be accessed with just search engine results. In order to reach to some document on the deep web you have to login through its URL address. It requires a login id and password, it includes blogging accounts and several other websites.
3. Dark Web: Even though this is a part of internet searching, it cannot be looked up casually on a search engine. You need a specific kind of a browser called tor, in order to access a site like this. A dark web site is hidden using a tor encryption tool. And if any user reaches the dark web through some wrong manner, then they have high chances of their data been stolen.
Written by Nawaz Kochra