 "Cyber crime")
The personal data of around 7.5 million boAt customers has been leaked and is surfacing on the dark web, according to a report by Forbes India.
The leaked information includes sensitive details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and customer IDs. Boat, a manufacturer of audio products and smartwatches, has not yet released an official statement regarding the security breach.
According to the Forbes India report, the data breach was revealed by a hacker named ShopifyGUY, who stated that he/she gained access to Boat Lifestyle's database on April 5. The hacker then shared files containing the breached data, which comprised 7.5 million entries, on a dark web forum. This security breach exposes the users to potential risks such as financial fraud, phishing attempts, and identity theft.
Rakesh Krishnan, a senior threat analyst at NetEnrich, said that the hacker obtained access to the data well before its appearance on the dark web forum. He said that the “purpose of the leak may be to build the hacker’s reputation within the cybercrime community, given that the leaker is relatively new and this breach is their sole claim to notoriety”.
He added, “Considering the timeline, we can assume that the hackers gained access to the boAt customer database at least one month ago and put the data on the forum yesterday.”
Yash Kadakia, founder of Security Brigade, said that the data is available for eight credits on some forums. “It costs two euros to buy the data. It'll probably be available for free in a few days on Telegram. This data will be used by a lot of scammers for different phone and email scams,” Kadakia said.
Founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, boAt has emerged as the second most popular wearable brand in the third quarter of 2023, as per an IDC report.
A market leader in audio devices and wearables, boAt Lifestyle’s sales crossed Rs 3,000 crore in March 2023. The company’s total revenue stood at Rs 3,403.1 crore against Rs 2,886.4 crore in FY22.
