One of India’s leading audio and wearable companies, boAt, has been the victim of a data breach that allegedly leaked the data of over 7.5 million customers. The homegrown audio company acknowledged the data breach on 8 April 2024, stating that the company is conducting an internal investigation to resolve the issue.
A spokesperson from the company said, “boAt is aware of recent claims regarding a potential data leak involving customer information. We take these claims seriously and have immediately launched a comprehensive investigation.”
Although boAt Lifestyle didn’t acknowledge the issue until the press conference, media reports started coming out on Saturday stating that the company had been a victim of a data breach and might have lost the data of millions of customers.
A person named ShopifyGuy has claimed responsibility for hacking boAt and perpetrating the data leak. The PII (Personal Identifying Information) leak includes customers’ names, physical and email addresses, contact numbers, customer IDs, and more.
According to media reports, the data is on sale for 2 Euros or around Rs. 180. The worst part is not that the customers’ data is online but that if someone buys this data, he/she can use it to carry out frauds and scams with these customers.
Right now, boAt is working to investigate the breach and safeguard the customers’ leaked data. There is no official word on how the information of 7.5 million people was leaked or whether there was an internal fault in the systems.
boAt is India’s top wearable and audio company in the market share. It was founded by the man behind the success of boAt, Aman Gupta. The company has performed extremely well recently, becoming the go-to brand for Indians to buy budget-friendly wearable and audio devices. However, having a data leak of this scale cannot be good for the company as it can result in a loss of customer confidence and can bring about legal consequences.
