Online restaurant and food joint aggregator Zomato had indeed hit the jackpot of being the first company with over 120 million visitors every month. The company has been protecting the personal information of its users diligently till recently. A security recently breach of the company’s systems resulted in a theft of their user database as 17 million user records were stolen.
The Delhi-based company claims that the passwords were hashed that means it cannot be converted easily by the hackers. In an official blog, the company has also explained that it has logged all users out of its website and app as a precaution. Emails have been sent to affected users urging them to change their passwords to be on the safer side. In the same blog, Zomato has also assured that financial data and credit card information of users has been fully secured.
A report stated that a web vendor under the pseudonym “nclay” had taken the responsibility for the hack. Further investigations into the matter suggested that the hacker has provided exact details of stealing of the data which shows loopholes in the company’s security system.
Zomato’s founder Deepinder Goyal tweeted that most of the people use their Facebook and Google accounts to log in to Zomato. So, they are not at much risk as they don’t have passwords for these accounts. However, he assured users that the company will be enhancing and focusing on its security measures and will do everything in the interest of the users.
Ransomware is an act of encrypting files from a victim computer and prohibiting access until the user pays an amount of money demanded by a hacker. There have been several cases of ransomware experienced in the past. The most disruptive ransomware named WannaCrypt popularly called Wcry severely hit dozens 74 countries including India affecting more than 45,000 computers in many enterprises that include IT organizations, ATMs, universities, hospitals, railway station networks.