Data of 6 lakh Indians stolen and sold on bot market, says study

The data of nearly 5 million people was stolen and sold on the bot market, out of which 6 lakh individuals are Indians, making it the worst affected country as per NordVPN, one of the largest VPN service providers in the world. The study by NordVPN analysed three major bot markets, namely the Genesis market, the Russian Market, and 2Easy. Stolen logins were found by the study, including those from Google, Facebook, and Microsoft accounts. According to what Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN told Reuters, the thing which differentiates bot markets from other dark web markets is that they can get large amounts of data about one person in one place. He further added that once the bot is sold, they provide guarantee to the buyer that the victim’s information will be updated as long as his/her device is infected by the bot. Hackers use the bot markets for selling stolen data from people’s devices via bot malware. According to the study by NordVPN, the stolen data included digital fingerprints, screenshots, cookies, logins, and other information with the average price for an individual’s digital identity pegged at Rs 490. The data was tracked by NordVPN for the past four years since the bot markets were introduced in 2018. In their study, the researchers of NordVPN found nearly 667 million cookies, 538,000 auto-fill forms, 81,000 digital fingerprints, webcam snaps, and various device screenshots. The malware is sent by the hackers on victims’ devices through infected websites and sends malicious attachments or links via email. India has been dealing with concerns regarding cyber security for a while. Last month, multiple servers of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), were infected on 23 November, as told by a senior police official to Reuters. On 30 November, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) faced nearly 6,000 hacking attempts within 24 hours, as reported by the Times of India. Earlier this year, the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) mandated tech firms to report data breaches within six hours of finding such incidents and to maintain communication and IT log for six months. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.