Another Alibaba-Backed Grocer Suffers Massive Data Breach

In more trouble for the Chinese tech giant, Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd BABA-backed Indian grocer BigBasket suffered a massive data breach affecting a million users, Bloomberg reports.

The cyberattack comes a few weeks after another Alibaba-backed e-commerce venture, Lazada Group, disclosed suffering a data breach involving 1.1 million users.

What Happened: BigBasket Chief Executive Officer Hari Menon confirmed the data breach but didn't specify the scale of the attack due to an ongoing investigation.

Bloomberg reports that stolen data includes sensitive information including email IDs, mobile phone numbers, full addresses, which have been put up for sale on the dark web for more than $40,000.

India's technology hub, Bengaluru, has set up eight cybercrime police bureaus in the last year. A police inspector heads each hub, but not all staff are equipped to handle sophisticated cyber-attacks. The bureaus receive many complaints each month, but many crimes remain unsolved, as per Bloomberg.

Why It Matters: The pandemic has led home-bound users to converge online. It increases the risks of cyberattacks due to growing volumes of sensitive data stored online.

It raises questions and troubles for Alibaba as its Singapore-based Lazada was also a cyberattack target. However, the company claims that the affected information was more than 18 months out-of-date.

Reportedly, Bigbasket is in talks to sell half its stake to India's Tata Group at a $2 billion valuation.