Reliance Jio acknowledges systems breach

Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is looking into reports of a major leak of user data, has filed a police complaint alleging “unlawful access to its systems”, a police officer involved in the investigation said on Wednesday. The complaint is the firm’s first official acknowledgement of a systems breach. Jio had so far denied media reports and user accounts of a leak.

The officer involved in the investigation said Jio filed the complaint on Monday in Navi Mumbai, where it is headquartered. Jio, part of conglomerate Reliance Industries, did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on Wednesday. Several local news sites reported late on Sunday that names, telephone numbers and email addresses of Jio users were visible on a site called Magicapk, which was subsequently taken down.

Jio, headed by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, rubbished the website’s claims. “There is a clear stigma attached to being hacked, or data being stolen,” said Akash Mahajan, a web security consultant in Bengaluru, adding this is why firms in India often do not admit to data breaches.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that police in Rajasthan detained a man on suspicion of involvement in the breach. The officer said preliminary evidence indicated the Aadhaar numbers were not compromised in the leak. Jio, launched last September, boasts over 100 million subscribers.