Vodafone Idea denies reports of data breach, calls it “false and malicious”

In its report, the cyber security research firm claimed that the call data records of 20.6 million postpaid Vodafone Idea customers were leaked due to vulnerabilities in the company’s systems. It further claimed that data leaked included call time, duration of the call, from where the call was made, full name of the subscriber, address SMS details and roaming details.

Speaking to news agency PTI, CyberX9’s founder and managing director Himanshu Pathak said on Sunday the firm shared its entire findings with Vodafone Idea via email.

“Later on August 22, Vodafone Idea confirmed the receipt of our report. Vodafone Idea acknowledged the vulnerabilities discovered and reported by us on August 24,” Pathak said.

However, Vodafone Idea has denied the claim, saying that it learnt about a “potential vulnerability in its billing communication” and that “was immediately fixed” and a thorough forensic analysis was conducted to “ascertain there was no data breach”. “Vi customer data remains fully safe and secure,” Vodafone Idea added. 

In its defense, the telco said that it performs “regular checks” and audits are conducted to strengthen the security infrastructure. However, CyberX9 says that Vodafone Idea’s claim that they have conducted a forensic audit is absurd. The security research firm says that call logs and other data of millions of Vodafone Idea customers have been leaked for the past two years, which was accessed by hackers. 

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