From Byjus to Netflix: Cyberabad Police busts India's 'biggest' data theft

In what can be called as the biggest data theft, the Cyberabad Police in India has said it arrested a person 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.

Vinay Bhardwaj, the police said, was found possessing data of students of edu-tech organisations such as Byjus and Vedantu and also holds consumer/ customer data of major organisations like GST, road transport organisations of various states, major e-commerce portals, social media platforms and fintech companies.

The accused held customer data of major organisations like GST (Pan India), RTO (Pan India), Amazon, Netflix, Youtube, Paytm, Phonepe, Big Basket, BookMyShow, Instagram, Zomato, Policy Bazar, Upstox, etc.

"The accused who was arrested on Friday was found selling personal and confidential data of about 66.9 crore individuals and organisations maintained in 104 categories," Cyberabad Police said.

Some details of data theft

> Some of the important data held by the accused includes the data of defence personnel, government employees, PAN card holders, data of Classes 9, 10, 11 and 12 students, senior citizens.

> He also held data of Delhi electricity consumers, D-MAT account holders, mobile numbers of various individuals, NEET students, high net worth individuals, insurance holders, credit card and debit card holders among others, the release said.

> The accused was operating through a website 'InspireWebz' in Faridabad, Haryana, and selling database to clients through cloud drive links.

> The police seized two mobile phones and two laptops and data of 135 categories containing sensitive information of government, private organisations and individuals.

Statewise database held by the accused

Uttar Pradesh – 21.39 crore accounts

Rajasthan – 2 crore

Punjab – 1.5 crore

Madhya Pradesh – 4.50 crore

Jammu and Kashmir – 2 crore

Madhya Pradesh – 1.10 crore

Andhra Pradesh – 2.10 crore

Bihar – 1 crore

Kerala – 1.57 crore

Delhi – 2.70 crore

Haryana – 1 crore

In a similar case, last month, the Cyberabad Police in Telangana had busted a gang involved in the data theft and sale of sensitive information of government and important organisations. The arrested seven members of the gang allegedly stole details of 2.55 lakh defence personnel and 16.8 crore citizens of India.