Indian clients of Deloitte impacted by large cyberattack
As Big Four consulting firm Deloitte takes stock of the damage caused by a cyber attack on its database, reports have emerged that clients in India have also been affected by the breach.
Last week, reports emerged that Big Four consulting firm Deloitte, the largest cyber security consultancy in the world, was the victim of a cyber attack. Hackers allegedly accessed usernames, passwords, personal details and emails of both the firm’s employees as well as their clients. The breach took place on the IT systems provided by Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, which contained the communications of Deloitte’s 244,000 employees. To make matters worse, reports add that information was leaked on a regular basis, as the breach went unnoticed for a period of six months.
As the company takes stock of the damage, clients in India also appear to have been affected by the breach. Deloitte is one of the leading consulting firms in India, and allegedly held accounts of 52% of listed companies across the country until last year. Officials within the firm’s Indian operations have confirmed that classified emails and communications between the staff and clients in India have been compromised. While the identities of the clients remain a mystery, the firm has confirmed that "very few" clients in the country were directly affected. However, this number may rise as situation continues to be assessed.
Commenting on the incident, a Deloitte spokesperson said, “the attacker accessed data from an email platform. The review of that platform is complete. Importantly, the review enabled us to understand precisely what information was at risk and what the hacker actually did.”
The firm notified government authorities immediately after learning of the breach, as well as informing the few clients that had been directly affected. The spokesperson elobrated that Deloitte is “implementing its comprehensive security protocol and initiating an intensive and thorough review, which included mobilising a team of cyber-security and confidentiality experts inside and outside of Deloitte, [and] contacting governmental authorities immediately after it became aware of the incident.”
According to a recent report from analyst firm Gartner, India's IT security market is worth more than $1.2 billion.
Related: Largest cybersecurity consultant of the world rocked by cyber-attack.
