EPFO, PMO data breach: Centre says aware of reports, Cert-In looking into details

The government is aware of reports of a data breach that claims having datasets from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, and has asked the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert-In) to look into it, senior officials told ET.

“We are aware of it but need to verify if the claims being made are correct. They (Cert-In) will look into it and submit a detailed report, including on whether the data set is new,” an official said.

On Tuesday, a user on social media intermediary X claimed that a set of documents belonging to Chinese cyber agencies were leaked on the global software and code repository GitHub, and that these documents contained data from the EPFO, the Indian PMO and other public as well as private organisations.


Cyber security experts said they were investigating the matter to check the veracity of the claims.

"The tracker maintained by the attackers claimed to have access to one of the servers. Except the claims, there is no proof," said a cybersecurity expert who did not wish to be named.

There has been a multi-fold increase in the number of cyberattacks on organisations such as the Indian Council of Medical Research, Taj Hotels and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Of these attacks, state-sponsored cyberattacks against India increased by 278% between 2021 and September 2023, with services companies, including information technology and business process outsourcing firms, seeing the highest share of attacks, as per a report released in November last year.

According to the 2023 India Threat Landscape Report by Singapore-based cybersecurity firm Cyfirma, India is the most targeted country globally, facing 13.7% of all cyberattacks. The US is the second most targeted country, with 9.6% of all attacks. Indonesia and China follow, with 9.3% and 4.5% of all attacks, respectively.