Financial services firm WeRize becomes the victim of a data breach

WeRize (Wortgage Technologies), a financial services platform focused on small towns in India, said on Friday that it has been hit with a data breach. The Bengaluru-based firm informed India's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the relevant authorities and stakeholders.

External forensic teams are investigating the issue. Preliminary investigations point to potential collusion by certain ‘company personnel’ who may have shared data in gross violation of policies, training, and practices.

“The company has a zero-tolerance policy on such matters and shall take stringent action against the perpetrators, including all remedies available under law,” said the firm.

The company said it takes such incidents with the utmost seriousness and has always maintained security measures and best practices commensurate to its operations. It has undertaken multiple certifications and audits by relevant third parties and certification agencies, besides going through extensive penetration testing exercises.

WeRize said it would now augment these systems even more and implement additional measures to ensure such a situation does not recur.

“This has not affected operations or business continuity. The company’s systems are fully functional with the additional precautions and protections put in place,” it said.

Founded in 2019 by former Lendingkart executives Vishal Chopra and Himanshu Gupta, WeRize is building India’s first socially distributed full-stack fintech platform for emerging middle-class families. It is a full-stack provider, both manufacturing and distributing a wide portfolio of customised mortgages, unsecured credit, insurance, and savings products. It provides them to 300 million people spread across over 5,000 small cities.

The firm has raised $25.75 million equity ($115.5 million valuation) from British International Investment (UK’s sovereign impact fund formally known as CDC), Sony Japan, 3one4 Capital, Picus and others.

India ranked 5th in the list of most breached countries with 5.3 million leaked accounts in 2023, according to a report by private virtual network provider Surfshark. Globally, a total of 299.8 million accounts were breached. The US topped the list, accounting for 32 per cent of all breaches from January to December. The report said that Russia took the second place, while France ranked third, followed by Spain and India.