BEML’s internal data, staff email IDs hacked, leaked on dark web-THE HINDU-10-06-2020

Details:

In what is prima facie suspected to be an act of cyber terrorism from Pakistan, the official email ids of seven employees of an Indian Public Sector Undertaking working in the defence industry were found to be hacked, and internal data dumped on the dark net. The company targeted, BEML, previously known as Bharat Earth Movers Limited, is headquartered in Bengaluru, and has several crucial business verticals such as defence products, high mobility vehicles, Indian railway products and Metro rail cars.

The leak was discovered by Cyble Inc, a global cyber intelligence agency founded by cyber expert Beenu Arora. An update by Cyble on Tuesday said, “The actor has targeted the part of the BEML website detailing about their Indigenisation Levels, which seem to be a warning for the extremist government of India that they would face in the near future for their actions.

More players involved:

A BEML official said, “BEML became aware of it through a communication received from Cert-In on 3rd of June. The communication mentioned that some BEML files are available in dark net and it has been reported that the alleged data breach has taken place as a consequence of compromise of some email ids in the last week of May 2020. The MoD Cyber Security group has also been kept informed. BEML has formed a high-level committee to investigate the breach.

An internal analysis of logs have been carried out and data has been secured for further forensic cyber audit. Security credentials of all email accounts have been changed, urgent communications across the organisation regarding best practices related to cyber security have been sent.

No adverse impact:

Currently, steps are being taken on recommendations on the basis of internal review. A Cyber Security Audit is also being undertaken,” the official said.