Hackers Have Access To Indian Government's Blue-Collar Worker Database, eMigrate: Report (iamge@Pixabay)
A hacker claims to be accessing and selling an extensive database which is associated with the Indian government’s portal for blue-collar workers emigrating from the country.
Reportedly, the database is associated with the eMigrate portal, which contains full name, email, addresses, phone numbers, dates of births, mailing addresses and passport details of the individuals who have allegedly signed up with the portal, as reported by TechCrunch.
The eMigrate portal is launched by the Ministry of External Affairs and helps Indian labour migrate overseas. The also provides clearance tracking and insurance services to the migrant workers.
Read also: ‘Hacking’ Accusations, FIR And Elon Musk: EVM Tampering Row Explained
The database, which are said to be on sale on a known cybercrime forum, appears to be genuine. It even contains the information of an Indian government’s foreign ambassador, said the report.
It is not clear if the data was obtained directly form the portal or was obtained by the threat actors in a previous breach. The hacker claimed to have access to at least 200,000 internal and registered user entities.
Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) of India said that it is taking necessary actions with the concerned authority. The Ministry of External Affairs is yet to respond to the issue, said the report.
Read also: New Zealand Accuses China Of Hacking Parliament
This is not the first time Indian government is facing the allegations of data leaks. The Indian state government website was found exposing sensitive documents and personal information of millions of residents, earlier this year. In May this year, scammers were found to have tricked government websites into placing advertisements on the government websites that redirected users to online betting platforms.
Such data breaches can have huge impact on the users, whose personal information are being exposed. The personal information that are sold on hacker forums is often used by threat actors for launching phishing attacks, identity theft and to compromise the financial security of the users.
