Seqrite flags IRINN breach affecting over 6K Indian entities

Seqrite Cyber Intelligence Labs, a unit of BSE-listed Quick Heal Technologies, today said it has tracked an advertisement that claims to have "secret access" to database dump of over 6,000 Indian entities, including government agencies and private organisations.
Seqrite, along with its partner seQtree InfoServices, in a statement said it has "tracked an advertisement on DarkNet announcing secret access to the servers and database dump of over 6,000 Indian businesses".
It added that hacker -- who has targetted ISPs, Government and private organisations -- has priced the information at 15 Bitcoins.
It further warned that the hacker is also offering network takedown of the affected organisations for an unspecified amount.

"As a precautionary measure, Seqrite Intelligence Labs has reached out to Government authorities and Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) with a strong recommendation to alert all potentially affected organisations and urge them to change passwords and get their servers and systems patched with latest updates," it said.
Seqrite, the enterprise security solutions brand of Quick Heal, said the affected organisation has been identified as India's national Internet registry - IRINN (Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers) that falls under National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).

NIXI, in an emailed response, acknowledged that there had been an attempt to penetrate the system but "no serious security breach" of IRINN system has taken place.

"The hacker has no capacity to cause any damage or initiate distributed denial of service to any entity who has been allocated Internet resources through IRINN System," it added.
Following this breach, security protocol has been further strengthened and review of existing infrastructure has also been initiated, NIXI said.