Boat suffers data breach: Personal data of 7.5 mn users leaked on dark web

Indian consumer wearable brand boAt has suffered a massive data breach, where personal information of more than 7.5 million customers has been compromised.

The breach, allegedly carried out by a hacker known as ShopifyGUY, has resulted in the exposure of sensitive personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and customer IDs, according to media reports.

The threat actor has put out around 2 Gigabytes of personally identifiable information (PII) of boAt users on dark web forums, claimed the reports.

Reacting to the reports, boAt issued a statement on Monday saying that it was aware of the incident and has launched a detailed investigation into the matter.

 

“boAt is aware of recent claims regarding a potential data leak involving customer information. We take these claims seriously and have immediately launched a comprehensive investigation. At boAt, safeguarding customer data is our top priority,” said a company spokesperson.

The leakage of personal data over online forums makes consumers vulnerable to phishing and other types of scams.

Cybersecurity experts expressed concern over the breach and said that a data breach of such an order from a brand impacts the trust and loyalty it has established with the consumers.

“Customers' data being exfiltrated impacts trust and loyalty, and suppliers who rely on e-commerce ecosystems may choose to abandon the platform,” said Kumar Ritesh, Founder and CEO of CYFIRMA.

"Certainly, any data breach is in violation of regulations and there can be financial penalties," he added.

Experts advised that to prevent such incidents, companies need to ensure where the data is being stored and who has access to the databases.

“The next step (after the breach is detected) would be to see who all have access to the data systems, and what mechanisms are in place to control the access based on roles and the life cycle of data,” said Pankit Desai, Co-founder and CEO of Sequretek.

“Lastly, one needs to have a round-the-clock threat monitoring capability to ensure that any unusual activity is detected much in advance," Desai added.

A market leader in India’s audio product industry, boAt achieved a milestone of Rs 4,000 crore ($500 million) in net sales for FY 2022-23.

The company drives most of its revenues from the sale of audio devices such as wired earphones, wireless earphones, headphones, speakers, wired headphones, and soundbars.

It also offers products across other segments such as smartwatches, and other personal care products, and is creating a health and wellness wearables ecosystem within its product portfolio.

According to the Deloitte tech trends report 2024, around 30 crore Indians were susceptible to online threats, and among them, an alarming 5 lakh individuals fell prey to scamsters every year.