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Distressed telecom Vodafone Idea has another problem on its hands as a report by Cyber security firm Cyberx9 has claimed that its data of almost 301 million people have been exposed to the internet over the last 2 years.
Cyberx9 is a cyber security firm based in Chandigarh. It offers a variety of services such as Continuous Attack Surface Monitoring, Web Application Penetration Testing, Mobile App Penetration Testing, services for law enforcement and defense forces, etc. The firm has a staff of 35 people based all over the world and claims that it has a customer satisfaction rate of 99%.
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The firm has 3 years of experience, clients in 25 countries, and discovers over 100k vulnerabilities every year. The firm has been accredited with discovering data breaches in CDSL's KYC arm, PNB, and serves Fortune 500 companies as well.
The report issued by Cyberx9 has disclosed the data of nearly 301 million people, including 20.6 million Vi postpaid customers, which includes call records, personal details, internet usage, SMS details, and roaming details. Moreover, the firm has also claimed that the data of roughly 55 million people who showed interest in getting a Vi connection or are no longer related to Vi is also at risk of exposure.
However, this is where the matter took an interesting turn. According to the firm, it sent the report to the telecom whose receipt it acknowledged on 22nd August 2022. Moreover, the telecom also acknowledged the vulnerabilities reported in the report on 24th August 2022. However, when Vi was asked about the same, they flat-out refused any such breach.
"There is no data breach as alleged in the report. The report is false and malicious. Vi has a robust IT security framework to keep our customer data safe. We regularly conduct checks and audits to further strengthen our security framework. We learned about a potential vulnerability in billing communication. This was immediately fixed and a thorough forensic analysis was conducted to ascertain no data breach," the company said.
However, Cyberx9 is contesting this claim as it said, "Vi was exposing millions of customers' call logs and other sensitive data for at least the last two years. In that massive time period, multiple criminal hackers might have stolen this data. It is an absurd and baseless claim of Vi that they've done a forensic audit and no breach was found. Such a detailed forensic audit would at least take a couple of months to be done,"
Vodafone Idea, which is losing cash and customers, is launching 5G services very soon as it has begun the procedure for the network upgrade. The company's performance in the upcoming 5G era could be a game changer for the distressed telecom. However, any data breaches will shake customer confidence in the company, driving them away from Vi.
The stock had witnessed a full gap-down opening after the report was published. Vi's stock opened at Rs 8.95 per share today.
Article by Aman Agarwal.
This story is brought to you in association with Jobaaj.com
