India's Star Health absolves security chief in data leak incident (updated)

Star Health and Allied Insurance

28/10/2024 14:11

(Adds background paragraph 3 onwards)
       Oct 28 (Reuters) - India's Star Health and Allied
Insurance Company  STAU.NS  said on Monday that it did not find
any evidence of wrongdoing by the company's chief information
security officer in a data leak incident.
    The company said that alleged communication between a hacker
and the security officer were fabricated by the hacker.
    In August, Star Health faced a data leak, where stolen
customer data including medical reports, were publicly
accessible via chatbots on messaging app Telegram and through
websites.
    The company, in response to the data leak, said it reported
alleged unauthorized data access to local authorities and that
it was investigating the incident. 
    It also approached an Indian court to sue Telegram and the
hacker to get the content removed from online platforms.
    The websites on which the hacker publicly exposed the data,
as well as Telegram chatbots deployed by the hacker, have been
taken down, Star Health said in a statement on Monday. 
    

 (Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia
Cheema)
 ((Kashish.Tandon@thomsonreuters.com; 8800437922;))