According to HDFC Life Insurance, the company recently reported a cyberattack resulting in stolen confidential customer data. Cybercriminals allegedly accessed sensitive policyholder information and demanded extortion from the insurance company, so the company submitted a complaint to the South Region Cyber Police.
As per the complaint, there was a breach of security at the company between November 19 and November 21, 2024.
The cybercriminals, operating under the alias of bsdqwasdg@gmail.com and using a WhatsApp account to send unencrypted communications, managed to steal the
personal data of HDFC Life's clients. In a news release on Monday, HDFC Life Insurance Company, the country's second-largest private insurer by premiums, reported that customer information had been stolen from their system.
personal data of HDFC Life's clients. In a news release on Monday, HDFC Life Insurance Company, the country's second-largest private insurer by premiums, reported that customer information had been stolen from their system.
In recent months, there has been a second major data breach within the insurance sector following thee leak of many gallons of personal information by Star Health & Allied Insurance a few months ago.
Star Health and Allied Insurance had previously been subject to a cyberattack, as well as a forensic investigation conducted by independent cybersecurity experts, into the incident.
The data breach that occurred at Star Health's servers reportedly resulted in the sale of sensitive information about 31 million customers - an amount of 7.24 terabytes estimated - on the messaging network Telegram as part of the breach.
In its article, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), which controls the insurance industry in India, had indicated that, even though insurers have not been named, it takes security breaches very seriously and is committed to continuing its engagement with the companies to ensure the interests of policyholders are protected fully.
There was a lot of personal information leaked, including names, addresses, phone numbers, tax details, and sometimes even medical records of the insurance policyholders.
It was reported that Star Health's chief information security officer (CISO), Amarjeet Khanuja, had sold the company's data for $150,000 after a hacker allegedly accessed the data through the company's network.
There was another incident involving the loss of data at Tata AIG as well.
A few days after the presidential election, HDFC Life Insurance received several emails claiming to have been sent by an anonymous sender who claimed to have stolen the sensitive information of its customers. A hacker attached data to the email that included the names, policy numbers, addresses, and phone numbers of 99 of his victims.
As outlined in the email, unless negotiations are conducted, the data of the company will be leaked or sold to third parties. According to the hacker, the company has two days to respond to the threat and its reputation could be jeopardized.
A series of messages had been sent over the weekend of November 20 and 21 by the extortionist, warning the company that if they failed to negotiate, a massive leak would occur. As stated in one of the messages, the company will have to suffer losses of "hundreds of billions of rupees" if the transaction goes through, along with a damaged reputation and regulatory pressure from the government.
It was requested by the hacker that he pay money in exchange for preventing the exposure of the information.
A security expert examined the breach and verified its authenticity with the help of HDFC Life Insurance, which then decided to engage the police and inform the appropriate authorities of the breach.
As a result, the company has given its customers the assurance that it is taking all possible measures to ensure their information is protected and that the impact of the data theft is minimized.
It was decided to file a case under sections 308(3) (extortion) as well as 351(4) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 along with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000, for the commission of the offence.
There was a statement from HDFC Life that stated the company is committed to safeguarding the interest of its customers and will take swift action to resolve this matter.
In recent months, other insurers, including Star Health Insurance and Tata AIG, have also admitted to data breaches as a result of intrusions into their systems.
It is because of these incidents that IRDAI is constantly monitoring insurers' data security frameworks and ensuring that the necessary corrective actions are being taken as soon as possible.
A growing number of cyber threats are posing serious risks to the privacy of customers and the accountability of organizations in the insurance sector.
HDFC Life's proactive measures reflect the industry's recent push to enhance cybersecurity measures continuously to ensure that the risk of these breaches in the future is diminished.
A number of cybersecurity measures have been put in place by the IRDAI to ensure that data protection is robust and that millions of policies are protected
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