The National Commission for Women (NCW) has taken suo moto cognizance of the breach of data of the online e-commerce website Zivame which sells lingerie. The breached data reported includes the names, addresses, mobile numbers and email addresses and details of the purchased item, including size. The data is of women from all parts of the country.

The NCW has issued notice to Richa Kar, the founder of Zivame, asking her to appear in person before the Commission on May 29.

The NCW took suo moto cognizance of a Twitter post of the legal advocacy group Kalinga Rights Forum alleging that sensitive information of 1.5 million Hindu girls has been leaked to Islamic groups through the dark web for targeted harassment. The Forum had addressed a complaint to the Ministry of Women and Child Development about the incident.

"..the National Commission for Women has taken a suo moto cognizance of the Twitter post of Kalinga Rights Forum alleging data breach by Zivame (online lingerie application) and leaking of sensitive information of 1.5 million Hindu girls to Islamic Groups through Dark Web for targeted harassment, love jihad, women trafficking and abduction", the notice issued by NCW on Wednesday said.

The hacked data continues to be sold through a group on Telegram. As per that group, Shadow Hacker, (a hacker reportedly from the Middle East), hacked the database of Zivame and attempted to blackmail the IT head of Zivame for money to fix the bug. Though initially, the employee paid money to the hacker, when the hacker found further venerability in the website, the employee of Zivame refused to pay.

"However, after a few days, I contacted him again and informed him that I had discovered a new vulnerability that allowed me to take over any Hindu girl's account on the platform! To my surprise, he ignored me and told me that he was not interested, stating that since he had already paid me before, I should have provided the information for free. However, I had only asked for $500", a social media post, allegedly by the hacker says.

A Police complaint has already been filed in Uttar Pradesh by a girl whose details were made public as a sample by the anonymous group that is selling the database online. The sample data released to the public by the hackers contained details of around 1500 women.

In September 2020, Reliance Industries acquired a minority stake in Actoserba Active Wholesale, which owns and operates the online lingerie store Zivame.

Click here to read/download NCW's Notice

National Commission for Women

Verdictum News Desk