Mumbai: 1 lakh elite club members lose privacy to hackers

Data of over one lakh members of a renowned club was recently hacked and put up on sale for a pittance. The matter came to light after a few members received emails and messages from unknown persons claiming to have floated the information online for Rs 19,999.

The complaint of data theft was lodged at Kasarvadavali police station by a software solution company that safeguards the club’s information and data comprising members’ names, mobile numbers, email IDs and their business classification. The police have registered a case to probe the complaint.

The complainant firm develops software and data security, and has been handling the club’s information since 2014.

On July 28, the 52-year-old owner of the firm received information that emails and WhatsApp messages were being circulated to some of the club members, stating that data of over one lakh members had been hacked and made public. The complainant failingly tried to contact the senders on email as well as the two phone numbers from where the WhatsApp messages had originated. Similar complaints were received on August 8 as well.

The police have launched an investigation and registered a case under sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property and 511 (attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66B (dishonestly receiving stolen computer resource or communication device) of the Information Technology Act.

The police are also probing the details of the email and the phone numbers provided by the complainant to get more leads about the culprits.

Published on: Monday, August 15, 2022, 10:54 PM IST