India's second-largest telecommunications operator Airtel on Friday denied any intrusion into its systems, following reports of suspected security flaws that raised concerns among customers.
The telecoms group, which also sells productivity and security solutions to businesses, said it had conducted a “thorough investigation” and found there had been no intrusion into Airtel's systems.
The telecom giant, which has around 375 million subscribers in India, dismissed media reports about the alleged leak as “nothing but a desperate attempt by vested interests to tarnish Airtel's reputation.”
The company's statement comes following unconfirmed reports of a possible data leak circulating in local media and on social media, causing anxiety among Airtel subscribers.
This week, individuals claiming to be data brokers have appeared on popular cybercrime forums offering to sell what are said to be personal details of around 375 million users, including phone numbers, email addresses, Aadhaar ID numbers and addresses.
Earlier this week, TechCrunch reviewed a data sample shared by the broker and found inconsistencies in its contents, leading some security experts to question the legitimacy of the incident.
“We don't think this is an Airtel database. It appears to be an aggregated database of multiple databases and the perpetrators are trying to sell it as an Airtel database,” Rahul Sasi, founder and CEO of cybersecurity startup CloudSEK, told TechCrunch based on his analysis of the data samples.
It is noteworthy that the forum post was removed shortly after the incident was reported online. The forum also permanently blocked the broker's account as a suspected “scammer.”