Indian governments cloud spilled citizens personal data online for years TechCrunch

pCommentppThe Indian government has finally resolved a yearslong cybersecurity issue that exposed reams of sensitive data about its citizens A security researcher exclusively told TechCrunch he found at least hundreds of documents containing citizens personal information including Aadhaar numbers COVID19 vaccination data and passport details spilling online for anyone to accessppAt fault was the Indian governments cloud service dubbed S3WaaS which is billed as a secure and scalable system for building and hosting Indian government websitesppSecurity researcher Sourajeet Majumder told TechCrunch that he found a misconfiguration in 2022 that was exposing citizens personal information stored on S3WaaS to the open internet Because the private documents were inadvertently made public search engines also indexed the documents allowing anyone to actively search the internet for the sensitive private citizen datappWith support from digital rights organization the Internet Freedom Foundation Majumder reported the incident at the time to Indias computer emergency response team known as CERTIn and the Indian governments National Informatics CentreppCERTIn quickly acknowledged the issue and links containing sensitive files from public search engines were pulled downppBut Majumder said that despite repeated warnings about the data spill the Indian government cloud service was still exposing some individuals personal information as recently as last weekppWith evidence of ongoing exposures of private data Majumder asked TechCrunch for help getting the remaining data secured Majumder said that some citizens sensitive data began spilling online long after he first disclosed the misconfiguration in 2022ppTechCrunch reported some of the exposed data to CERTIn Majumder confirmed that those files are no longer publicly accessibleppWhen reached prior to publication CERTIn did not object to TechCrunch publishing details of the security lapse Representatives for the National Informatics Centre and S3WaaS did not respond to a request for commentppMajumder said it was not possible to accurately estimate the true extent of this data leak but warned that bad actors were purportedly selling the data on a known cybercrime forum before it was shuttered by US authorities CERTIn would not say if bad actors accessed the exposed datappThe exposed data Majumder said potentially puts citizens at risk of identity thefts and scamsppMore than that when sensitive health information like COVID test results and vaccine records get out its not just our medical privacy thats compromised it stirs fears of discrimination and social rejection he saidppMajumder noted that this incident should be a wakeup call for security reformsppEvery weekday and Sunday you can get the best of TechCrunchs coverageppStartups are the core of TechCrunch so get our best coverage delivered weeklyppThe latest Fintech news and analysis delivered every TuesdayppTechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insightppBy submitting your email you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice
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