Stolen customer data including medical reports from India’s biggest health insurer, Star Health, is publicly accessible via chatbots on Telegram, just weeks after Telegram’s founder was accused of allowing the messenger app to facilitate crime.
The purported creator of the chatbots told a security researcher, who alerted Reuters to the issue, that private details of millions of people were for sale and that samples could be viewed by asking the chatbots to divulge.
Using the chatbots, Reuters was able to download policy and claims documents featuring names, phone numbers, addresses, tax details, copies of ID cards, test results and medical diagnoses.
Star Health and Allied Insurance, whose market capitalization exceeds $4 billion, in a statement to Reuters said it has reported alleged unauthorized data access to local authorities. It said an initial assessment showed “no widespread compromise” and that “sensitive customer data remains secure”.
The ability for users to create chatbots is widely credited with helping Dubai-based Telegram become one of the world’s biggest messenger apps with 900 million active monthly users.
However, the arrest of Russian-born founder Pavel Durov in France last month has increased scrutiny of Telegram’s content moderation and features open to abuse for criminal ends. Durov and Telegram denied wrongdoing and are addressing the criticism.
