MobiKwik Data Breach: User KYC Information Readily Available On Darknet

MobiKwik has surged in popularity as one of the digital transaction platforms, known for its cashback offers. If you're a MokiKwik user, we have some concerning news. It looks like the digital payments platform has fallen prey to a massive data breach where over 10 crore MobiKwik users' data is available on the dark web.

MobiKwik Data Breach

The report comes from independent security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia, whose findings have been backed by well-known French cybersecurity expert Elliot Anderson. The researchers call the MobiKwik leak one of the biggest KYC data leaks to date exposing over 10 crore user data and making it readily available on the dark web.

Going into the details, researcher Rajaharia said back in February that a hacker was selling MobiKwik user data. Here, the data includes details like Aadhaar, debit/credit card details, phone numbers, PAN card numbers, and other personal information that's usually collected during KYC (Know Your Customer).

Further, several personal information of high-profile Indian tech company founders was also found in compressed data form, which is found to be around 350GB in size, Rajaharia said to Deccan Herald. "In addition to the data of 9.9 crores MobiKwik users, key identification details such as passport, Aadhaar card, Pan cards, selfies, store picture proof of 30 lakh merchants including are also on sale," the report states.

MobiKwik Denies Data Breach Allegations

On the other hand, MobiKwik has denied any data breach in its servers. The digital wallet company notes it has "thoroughly investigated and didn't find any security lapses". MobiKwik further stresses that its user data is completely safe and secure.

This brings us to the matter of authenticity of the data breach. Rajaharia stresses the accuracy of his research and notes that MobiKwik users can head over to the dark web and simply type their registered email in the search bar to see if their data is compromised or not.

What's worse, the unknown seller is charging 1.5Bitcon (approx. Rs 63,20,535) for the data. The seller promises to delete the data after the money transfer, but no one can be certain at this time. Data breaches like this aren't uncommon. However, it's shocking to see the alarming rise in such data breaches.