Indian government, media giant targeted by Chinese hackers, research firm says
- Data may have been stolen from a government agency that handles the private biometric information of more than 1 billion Indian citizens
- The media group that publishes The Times of India also appeared to have been targeted, said the new report by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future Inc
The Unique Identification Authority of India, also known as the UIDAI, contains the private biometric information of more than 1 billion Indian citizens. The authority’s networks were believed to have been breached during intrusions tracked between June and July this year, though it is not clear what data was taken, according to Recorded Future.
The government agency said it had no knowledge of such a breach and that its database was encrypted and only available to users with multi-factor authentication. The agency had a “robust security system in place” that was constantly upgraded to maintain the “highest level of data security and integrity”, an email from the agency said.
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Bennett Coleman & Co., also known as the Times Group, which publishes The Times of India, also appeared to be targeted by the Chinese hackers, according to Recorded Future. Data was exfiltrated from the company between February and August, but it was not clear data was stolen, Recorded Future said.
The company dismissed the report, saying the “alleged exfiltration” was blocked by its cybersecurity defences.
The chief information officer for the Times Group, Rajeev Batra, said an internal security report for the company described the intrusions as “non-serious alerts and false alarms”.