A security lapse exposed India’s CISF personnel files and health records – TechCrunch

Inside paperwork, officer well being information, and personnel recordsdata belonging to India’s Central Industrial Safety Drive have been spilling on-line due to a knowledge safety lapse.

A safety researcher in India, who requested to not be named for worry of retaliation from the Indian authorities, discovered a database full of community logs generated by a safety equipment related to CISF’s community. However the database was not secured with a password, permitting anybody on the web to entry the logs from their internet browser.

The community logs include detailed information of which recordsdata on CISF’s community have been accessed or blocked due to safety guidelines. As a result of the logs contained full internet addresses of paperwork saved on CISF’s community, it was potential for anybody on the web to entry the logs, after which open these recordsdata of their browser straight from CISF’s community, additionally with no need a password.

The logs contained information for greater than 246,000 full internet addresses of PDF paperwork on CISF’s community, lots of which relate to personnel recordsdata and well being information, and include personally identifiable info on CISF officers. A few of the recordsdata are dated as just lately as 2022.

CISF is likely one of the largest police forces on this planet with greater than 160,000 personnel, tasked with defending authorities amenities, infrastructure, and airport safety throughout the nation.

The researcher stated the safety equipment is constructed by Haltdos, an India-based safety firm that gives community safety expertise to organizations. The database was first discovered to be uncovered on March 6, in response to Shodan, a search engine for uncovered gadgets and databases. TechCrunch confirmed that the database was configured with the identify “haltdos.”

Haltdos CEO Anshul Saxena didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark. TechCrunch additionally emailed a CISF public affairs officer with a number of internet addresses of publicly uncovered recordsdata saved on its servers, however we didn’t obtain a response. It’s not unusual for presidency organizations in India to quietly repair safety points when alerted by good-faith safety researchers however then rebuff or deny the claims after they invariably turn into public data.

The database is now not accessible, although the safety equipment itself seems to nonetheless be on-line.

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