The Centre on Wednesday confirmed that there had been a data breach in the systems of state-owned telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited in May.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team reported the “possible intrusion and data breach” at the telecom operator on May 20, Union Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said in a written response to a question by Congress MP Amar Singh in the Lok Sabha.
The Computer Emergency Response Team, which is the country’s national cyber security agency, operates under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
Pemmasani said that while the breach did not lead to a service outage, “one [BSNL] server was having the data similar to the sample data shared by CERT-In [Computer Emergency Response Team]”.
An inter-ministerial committee has been constituted to conduct an audit of the telecom networks and suggest remedial measures for prevention of data breaches, the minister added.
In June, Athenian Tech, a London-based cyber security company, said in a report that the “breach involves a substantial amount of sensitive data including International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) numbers, SIM card information, and Home Location Register (HLR) details, among other critical data”, The Hindu reported.
The data was “critical” as it enabled hackers to possibly gain access to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s networks and clone users’ SIM cards, the report added.
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