Airtel India has vehemently denied claims of a massive data breach, which alleged that the data of 375 million Indian users was up for sale on the dark web. Airtel has reiterated that its users’ private information is safe and all such claims are fake.
“Basis preliminary investigation we can confirm that there has been no data breach whatsoever of Airtel’s system,” an Airtel spokesperson told 91mobiles.
An updated statement from Airtel reads, “There has been an ongoing report alleging that Airtel customer data has been compromised. This is nothing short of a desperate attempt to tarnish Airtel’s reputation by vested interests. We have done a thorough investigation and can confirm that there has been no breach whatsoever from Airtel systems.”
Per Dark Web Informer on X.com, an agent named xenZen was claiming to sell a dataset of 375 million Airtel India users on a community called BreachForums which included details like name, family information, contact details, Aadhaar information, etc.
Incidentally, the seller claimed to be behind the recent Indian Ministry of External Affairs data leak as well. That leak was spotted towards the end of last month and reportedly consisted of around 200,000 user data records from the ministry’s eMigrate portal. However, the authenticity of the hacker’s claims hasn’t been established in either case.
Even though the strictest security practices are in place to keep private information secure, data breaches can occur and here’s what you can do to keep yourself safe.
Things to do if your personal data is compromised online
- First of all, check if your data appears compromised by checking on sites like Have I Been Pwned.
- Change passwords of the compromised online accounts.
- Set up 2-factor authentication using Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator, Twilio Authy or built-in tools on these platforms.
- Keep an eye on your financial accounts and passbook.
- Don’t fall for phishing or spam messages and emails.
