Cybersecurity attacks — in the wake of AI — are nothing new. But when it happens in a company, especially a consumer facing one, then the challenges are multifold.
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BookMyForex, the foreign exchange unit of MakeMyTrip (MMT), has been hit by a security breach and the data of tens of millions of users is at the risk of being compromised, if timely action is not taken, sources privy to confidential information informed IndianStartupNews (ISN).
“The hack likely seems to have originated from a region in Brazil. It is also possible it has happened in another region but details and a confirmation are both awaited,” as per a source.
For now, users are seeing their forex balances turning to zero, or are facing issues using the card while on travel. Things appear to have come to a standstill for BookMyForex.
“Certain users are also getting debit messages on their phones while being thousands of miles away from the place the card is used at,” one more source said.
Now, whether the balance – from customer wallets – is wiped out or is there a hacker group only causing glitches in the system remains to be ascertained.
BookMyForex chose not to reply to ISN’s queries. We shall update the story in case the company responds.
The company, based in Gurugram has millions of users including corporate partnerships, sim cards, forex cards reload and more. A timely and swift response from the company will ensure all the data is safeguarded and can be restored.
For now, the website is up and running. Even customer care is active but is seeing at least a 3X increase in incoming traffic which has impacted operations.
Update:
“There has been no data breach involving BookMyForex systems or customer data. YES Bank observed unusual volumes of false transaction attempts on YES BANK – BookMyForex Multi-Currency Prepaid Forex Cards which resulted in high number of declined transactions. These transactions, when analyzed, were found to originate from a specific country. The Bank has blocked transactions from this specific country which was identified as the source of all these attempts. As a precautionary measure, cards involved in these attempted transactions were also proactively blocked. Customer balances remain fully secure. We continue to closely monitor the situation, working closely with the bank to take necessary steps towards customer protection. We are arranging complimentary replacement cards to ensure uninterrupted access to their forex balances,” BookMyForex spokesperson said.