4 Held for Selling Personal Data of Indians on Dark Web: TMC MP Accused Govt.

Four individuals have been arrested by the Delhi Police Cyber Unit in connection with the alleged data leak of over 81 crore Indians’ Aadhaar and passport information. This follows an alert from an American cybersecurity agency, Resecurity, about the breach, which was considered possibly the ‘biggest’ case of data leak in the country.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Saket Gokhale accused the Narendra Modi-led government of providing false information in Parliament regarding the security of Aadhaar data. In a social media post, Gokhale questioned the government’s response to his previous inquiry and highlighted the contradiction between the official denial and the recent arrests related to the leakage of Aadhaar and passport details on the dark web.

The arrested individuals were apprehended approximately 10 days ago as a result of suo motu action initiated by authorities. The leaked personal data, sourced from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) database, was reportedly being offered for sale on the dark web. Police officials noted that the breach was first detected in October, and the compromised information was available on illicit online platforms.

The severity of the situation prompted Congress MP Manickam Tagore to write a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, expressing concern over the security and integrity of citizens’ sensitive data. The letter emphasized that the data, which includes Aadhaar numbers and passport details of 815 million Indian citizens, is being sold on the dark web, posing a serious threat to privacy and national security. Tagore raised questions about the adequacy of data protection measures and called for urgent action to address the lapses.

This incident follows Gokhale’s previous allegations in July, where he claimed that the CoWin platform, responsible for tracking Covid-19 vaccinations, had been breached. Details of senior political leaders, including Aadhaar card numbers, were allegedly exposed on the social media application Telegram. The recent data leak further amplifies concerns about the country’s data protection infrastructure and the need for robust measures to safeguard citizens’ sensitive information.