Boat, a startup led by Aman Gupta, has reportedly experienced a significant data breach incident, with the private details of over 7.5 million customers surfacing on the dark web. These details comprise sensitive information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and customer IDs.
According to a report from Forbes, an individual operating under the alias ‘ShopifyGUY’ asserted responsibility for breaching the data of Boat Lifestyle, a company renowned for its audio products and smartwatches. The hacker shared files containing the personal information of customers, totaling 7.5 million entries.
Over the past several months, data breaches have become increasingly common, posing far-reaching impacts on individuals by rendering them more vulnerable to financial scams, phishing attempts, and identity theft. Saumay Srivastava, a Threat Intelligence Researcher, highlighted in the report that with access to sensitive details, threat actors could orchestrate digital attacks, manipulate personal information to gain unauthorized access to bank accounts, conduct fraudulent transactions, and misuse credit cards.
The company’s sales surpassed Rs 3,000 crore by March 2023, with total revenue reaching Rs 3,403.1 crore, up from Rs 2,886.4 crore in the preceding fiscal year FY22.
As the world transitions towards a more digitized landscape, frequent occurrences of data breaches pose a significant risk to individuals’ security and privacy.
In a related incident last year, the private information of 815 million Indian citizens, including Aadhaar numbers and passport details, was uncovered for sale on the dark web. The sellers purported that the data was acquired from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
