Online identity theft via edtech, OTT, e-commerce accounts doubles in India: Study

Account Takeover posts on dark web witness 90-100% rise in first five months of 2021

ITDC INDIA EPRESS/ITDC NEWS The Bengaluru-based company assessed 12,000 OTT, 7,500 e-retail and e-commerce and 4,500 edtech accounts from January to May during its study. "What makes the situation favourable for ATO is that many Indian users are still using passwords which they used in 2014 for a brand which had a data breach at that time," the study notes.

The study also found out there was a huge demand for OTT usernames and passwords since the lockdown and many of the credentials belonging to Indian brands are regularly available for sale on Telegram and similar data-sharing platforms on the dark web. “Using the same password for the ease of use and many digital business companies not imposing two-factor authentication and not prompting to regularly change their login passwords, fearing that it could create a dent in consumer experience, actually exposes them to threat of ATO, credential stuffing and credential cracking,” said Nandakishore Harikumar, founder & CEO of Technisanct Technologies.