boAT faces cyberattack impacting more than 7.5 million users following controversial ad claiming superiority to Apple
The Indian accessories brand boAT gained attention with a controversial ad suggesting consumers should choose boAT gadgets over Apple products. The ad, urging buyers to “think better” and not be an Apple “Fanboy,” sparked debate online. However, the social media buzz seems to have faded quickly.
boat data leak: Customer’s mobile phone numbers, home addresses exposed
BoAT, India’s leading wearables maker according to IDC, said it suffered a massive cyber attack that the company did not disclose, and boAT has yet to acknowledge the breach. According to a Forbes report, the personal information of more than 75 million customers of boat products was compromised and the data set is available on the dark web. Leaked personal information includes names, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses and IDs of boat users. A hacker named ShopifyGUY came forward and claimed to have access to the boat’s leaked customer data on April 5th. A total of 7.55 lakh user data was exposed.
After the data breach was reported by the media, several individual cyber security enthusiasts tried to gain access to verify the authenticity of the leaked data. There is no official confirmation of how the data breach occurred. It is still unclear whether there was a breach of privacy on BoAT’s side, or whether customer information has been compromised by fake boat ads on the scammers’ social media.
boat equipment users should exercise caution
Founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, the company is India’s number one wearables brand with a 19 percent market share. It has more than 26 percent market share in the TWS headphones segment. Boat users need to be extra cautious when engaging in calls from unknown numbers, especially WhatsApp video/voice calls from unknown numbers.
With leaked personal information, fraudsters can create phishing scams, tricking customers into believing that their recent boat purchase will allow them to get better deals, cash back, etc.
