Star Health reportedly confirms a cyber attack incident from last month

Star Health, one of India’s largest health insurers, has reportedly confirmed that it was the target of a malicious cyber-attack that led to bad actors illegally accessing “certain data”. The incident was first reported last month, but the insurer declined to comment ahead of an internal investigation. The company is said to have filed a formal criminal complaint and notified insurance and cybersecurity authorities. Notably, one report claimed that the hackers used Telegram chatbots to leak the company’s data.

Star Health reportedly confirms a data breach

The company told TechCrunch in a statement that it was indeed the target of a data breach incident. The recognition comes almost two weeks after the incident was first reported. The Chennai-based insurance giant also highlighted that the hackers were able to access “certain data”, but it reportedly did not share any details on whether any customer data was breached.

Star Health has reportedly stated that a forensic investigation into the incident is currently underway, led by independent cybersecurity experts. The company would work closely with government and regulatory authorities at every stage of the investigation. Cybersecurity authorities and regulatory departments have also been notified, the release said.

Last month, the cyber attack on Star Health reportedly resulted in a major data breach. According to the report, personal data of 31 million policyholders and more than 5.8 million insurance claims were stolen by the bad actors. The data was later allegedly leaked via messaging platform Telegram.

Hackers are said to have used autonomous chatbots on the platform to leak the data. The data reportedly includes information such as names, phone numbers, addresses, tax information, copies of identification cards, test results and medical diagnoses.

Days later, the Indian insurer filed a lawsuit against Telegram for allegedly facilitating the leak of the company’s sensitive data. The Madras High Court ordered the instant messaging platform to block all chatbots and websites in India that were making the data available online. In addition, Star Health has also filed a complaint against software giant Cloudflare for allegedly offering services to websites hosting the leaked data.