The cyber crime police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) are on the hunt for a hacker who accessed confidential data of an e-commerce company and advertised the sale of the information on the dark net. The hacker allegedly demanded money from the owner of the company to take down the list.
The incident came to light when the owner of the company, Praveen B.S., realised that his client list had been stolen. The data included details of all the customers who bought groceries and other products from his company’s online website, said a police officer. Someone had accessed his system without authorisation and stolen the data on October 13.
The hacker identified himself as Beenu Arora via email. “He claimed to be the CEO of an IT company and demanded $70,000 to withdraw the sale advertisement on the dark net, and another $100,000 in the form of Bitcoins to secure the stolen data,” the police officer added.
Based on a complaint, the cyber crime police are trying to track down the accused via the IP address of the email used by the accused.
Incidentally, the Central Crime Branch, while probing a drug racket, had arrested a software engineer Sri Krishna for allegedly hacking into the database of companies and stealing sensitive information. He would either blackmail the owners and demand money to return the data, or sell the information on the dark net. Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime), said that Sri Krishna has been taken into custody till December 1 to investigate his role in the hacking.
According to Mr. Patil, Sri Krishna claims to hacking 30 websites, mainly Bitcoin exchanges, poker and other gaming sites.
