Vodafone data leaked! 20 million customers information hacked, says CyberX9; Vi reacts

Vodafone data of nearly 20 million subscribers was leaked due to a system vulnerability, according to cybersecurity firm CyberX9. Here's what we know.

The customer call data leak of nearly 20 million Vodafone subscribers happened due to a system vulnerability in Vi’s security network, according to a report. (MINT_PRINT)

Vodafone Idea customers have been left exposed as sensitive call data of nearly 20.6 million customers was leaked, according to cybersecurity firm CyberX9. The Vodafone data leak included sensitive information such as the customer's full name and address, call location, call duration, SMS details and more. According to the report, the personal data, internet usage and roaming usage data of postpaid Vi customers was also leaked.

CyberX9's founder and managing director Himanshu Pathak told PTI that the firm shared its entire findings with Vodafone Idea via email. He said, "Later on August 22, Vi confirmed the receipt of our report. Vodafone Idea acknowledged the vulnerabilities discovered and reported by us on August 24.”

However, Vodafone Idea denies any such claims of data leak. “There is no data breach as alleged in the report. The report is false and malicious. Vi has a robust IT security framework to keep our customer data safe,” Vi told PTI.

“We learnt about a potential vulnerability in billing communication. This was immediately fixed and a thorough forensic analysis was conducted to ascertain no data breach,” Vi further added. Vodafone Idea said they regularly carry out checks for any system vulnerabilities which could expose their security network. “Vi customer data remains fully safe and secure," Vi said.

CyberX9 further claimed that Vi's sensitive customer call data was being exposed for the last two years. CyberX9 said, “It is an absurd and baseless claim of Vi that they've done a forensic audit and no breach was found. Such a detailed forensic audit would at least take a couple of months to be done.”

CyberX9 has also claimed that personal data of nearly 55 million people who have already left the Vi network and even just showed interest in subscribing to the network was at risk.