New Delhi: According to NordVPN, one of the world’s largest VPN service providers, around five million people globally have had their data stolen and sold on the bot market, of which 600,000 are from India, making it the worst affected country. Bot markets are used by hackers to sell data stolen from the devices of victims with bot malware. The study, conducted by NordVPN of Lithuania’s Nord Security, said the stolen data included user logins, cookies, digital fingerprints, screenshots and other information, with an average price of INR 490 ($5.95).
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NordVPN tracked data from the past four years, ever since the bot markets were launched in 2018. India has been dealing with cyber security concerns for some time now. A senior police official told Reuters that as recently as last month, several servers at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a federal government hospital that serves ministers, politicians and the general public, were infected.
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The Times of India reported that a week after the ransomware attack on AIIMS, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) faced nearly 6,000 hacking attempts within 24 hours on 30 November. Indian cyber security regulations tightened earlier this year, with the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) mandating tech companies to report data breaches within six hours of noticing such incidents and six months for IT and Communication logs are required to be maintained.
NordVPN’s study examined three major bot markets – Genesis Market, Russian Market and 2EZ – and found stolen logins, including Google, Microsoft and Facebook accounts.
“What makes bot markets different from other dark web markets is that they are able to get massive amounts of data about a person in one place,” said Marijus Briedis, chief technology officer at NordVPN.
“And after the bot is sold, they guarantee the buyer that the victim’s information will be updated as long as their device is not infected by the bot.” NordVPN researchers found 667 million cookies, 81,000 digital fingerprints, 538,000 auto-fill forms, numerous device screenshots and webcam snaps in their study.