In 2021, a cybersecurity breach at Air India compromised the personal data of 4.5 million passengers. Additionally, in the same year, the personal information of 500,000 Indian police officers was offered for sale on a data sharing forum.
In one case, exam data and results of 190,000 students from the 2020 national level competitive exam were leaked and sold on a cyber crime forum.
Implications of recent leaks
In a report by WebsitePlanet, Fowler emphasized that the disclosure of biometric data from police, military, and railroad workers poses serious security and privacy risks. The data, which is important for authentication and anti-impersonation mechanisms, may be used for malicious activities if accessed by unauthorized persons.
“For example, a hacker could use exposed data to impersonate someone else — in this case, someone in law enforcement or the military, which could raise potential national security concerns,” Fowler said in the report. “Conceptually, a criminal could replace the photo, fingerprints, and other data in the database with that of an impersonated person, who then passes the biometric ID test since the face and prints match those stored in the database.”
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