Online grocery store BigBasket has faced a massive data breach recently as the company had allegedly leaked the data of over two crore users on the dark web. BigBasket, funded by Alibaba Group, Mirae Asset-Naver Asia Growth Fund, and CDC group has filed a complaint in this regard with Cyber Crime Cell in Bengaluru.
According to media reports, Cyble, a cyber intelligence firm informed that the grocery e -commerce platform BigBasket has leaked data such as names, email IDs, password hashes, contact numbers, addresses, etc. on the dark web. Also, Cyble informed that a hacker has put the data on sale for over Rs 30 lakh.
“In the course of our routine dark web monitoring, the research team at Cyble found the database of Big Basket for sale in a cyber crime market, being sold for over USD 40,000. The leak contains a database portion; with the table name ‘member_member’. The size of the SQL file is about 15 GB, containing close to 20 million user data,” according to Cyble.
Chayanika Goswami
Reacting to this, BigBasket said: “A few days ago, we learnt about a potential data breach at Bigbasket and are evaluating the extent of the breach and authenticity of the claim in consultation with cybersecurity experts and finding immediate ways to contain it. We have also lodged a complaint with the Cyber Crime Cell in Bengaluru and intend to pursue this vigorously to bring the culprits to book.”
Bengaluru based BigBasket also ensured that the confidentiality and security of customers is their priority and it does not store any financial data (including credit card numbers) etc. and is positive that this financial data is secure.
Tanusha Verma
“The only customer data that we maintain are email IDs, phone numbers, order details, and addresses so these are the details that could potentially have been accessed. We have a robust information security framework that employs best-in-class resources and technologies to manage our information. We will continue to proactively engage with best-in-class information security experts to strengthen this further,” the statement by BigBasket read.
Cyble also claimed that the breach may have occurred on October 30, 2020 and it has already informed Bigbasket about it.
Recently, the Tata group announced that the company is in advanced talks to acquire online grocery startup-BigBasket.
According to reports, BigBasket is ready to sell a majority stake for about $1 billion to Tata group. However, both parties have not offered a response at the time of writing. Multiple reports also suggest that Tata group could splash around $500-700 million for a controlling stake as BigBasket is also looking to raise around $200 million from a fresh round of funding.
BigBasket, which boosts 26% investment from China’s Alibaba, rivals Walmart owned Flipkart and Amazon’s fresh. The investment from Tata group will reportedly buy out all of Alibaba’s shares.
Varad Kitey