India has been ranked sixth globally by the number of breached users, with at least 18 out of every 100 Indians affected by data breaches and 254.9 million Indian accounts leaked since 2004, as per a new report by Surfshark. The country’s breach rate was recorded to be 740 per cent higher on June 1, as compared to the first quarter of 2022, up from 5 to 42 breached accounts per minute. So far, as many as 962.7 million Indian data points have been leaked, including passwords, names and telephone numbers.
According to the cybersecurity company Surfshark, the new directive from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) will put further risk on Indian users’ data by calling companies to extensive data collection within Indian jurisdiction. The directive orders the storage and handing-over of larger amounts of personal data of customers upon request.
CERT-In reported more than 1.4 million incidents of phishing attacks, viruses, malware, probing and others, recording a 21 per cent rise from 2020. Inadequate privacy legislation, user habits and data collection practices of websites and applications have endangered Indian users’ data to be sold, reused or exploited, posing serious cybersecurity concerns.
