I have learned that they charged Rs. 10000 (about $250) for the Mumbai database from naukri.com
Pune seems to be the capital for such data theft cases and in any case it is a hyperactive techie city with a great community of startups. Cases like this don't help the reputation that the city is building up and citizens must come forward to report anyone they find engaged in digital / cyber crime.
There is a learning for the affected site owners too - it is obvious there is a gap in the security infrastructure. If someone has been able to get their user database then there is a lot of work that seems to remain to be done. Thank God there are no privacy and data disclosure laws. Thank God once again that the Indian public is not so hyper about their personal information.
Else, there is a clear case for anyone to launch a case against these portals and they would have to pay up a tidy sum to settle some sort of a class action lawsuit. Both companies have privacy policies and terms of use on their websites so I went to take a look at them, and this is what I found:
Quote
Information security
We take appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data.
We restrict access to your personally identifying information to employees who need to know that information in order to operate, develop or improve our services.
Unquote
Timesjobs.com - Privacy Policy
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TimesJobs.com respects the privacy of its users and is committed to its protection
Unquote
It does provide information about use of the data. A Security Advice page tells users to be careful about protecting their passwords.
This is the story published on Times Of India ....
2 Pune youths held for cyber data piracy
Pune May 07, 2010: Two youths, who allegedly ran a syndicate which stole data from major job websites and other IT companies and sold them to clients, have been arrested by the city’s cyber crime cell.
Labels: data theft, naukri.com, pune, timesjobs.com data