Vianet’s Data Breach Exposes More Than 1.7 Lakhs Customers Personal Data [Updated]

History is repeated once again today, as Vianet, one of the largest ISP’s in Nepal got its data breached and dumped. Apparently, it seems the data was leaked last night, and it appears to have compromised data of more than 170,000 customers.

A twitter handle with the name “नरपिचास” allegedly gave out the link that directs to the data of more than 170,000 Vianet’s customers. The data dump link is hosted on the Onion network. It seemingly reveals a couple of user’s personal information that includes the name, email, phone number, and address.

Since the data was hosted on the Onion network, it requires a special browser, for instance, the “Tor Browser” to access the data dump.

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After the incident, we caught up with the officials of Vianet and informed them about the situation. They told us that they were unaware of this issue and cannot immediately confirm that the user’s data has indeed been breached. They have told us that Vianet is taking the issue seriously and currently investigating it. We are awaiting for Vianet’s official statement in this regard.

Prior to publishing this news, TechLekh team cross-checked the authenticity of the data with some of the Vianet users, and the data seems to be legit. That is why we urge all the Vianet users to take necessary precautions to avoid any potential damage in the future. 

A month ago, Foodmandu, one of the largest food delivery platform in Nepal, users data was breached. Around 50 thousand data related to Foodmandu’s users and a link associated with the data had been disclosed as well.

What are your thoughts about this data breach? Please share it in the comments below.

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UPDATE: Vianet has issued a public statement about the data breach. The company has asked its users to take precautions as a safety measure.