The IT Nerd

India’s largest health insurer Star Health has reportedly become the victim of a data breach, with sensitive information on more than 31 million customers leaked via chatbots on Telegram.

Reuters was alerted to the issue by a security researcher who is in communication with the creator of the chatbots. The chatbot creator claimed that the private details of millions of people, including medical reports, were for sale and that samples could be viewed by simply asking the chatbots.

Star Health said in a statement to Reuters that it reported suspected unauthorized data access to local authorities and that an initial assessment showed “no widespread compromise” and that “sensitive customer data remains secure”.

Unfortunately, using the chatbots, Reuters was able to download policy and claims documents which included: 

• Names
• Phone numbers
• Addresses
• Tax details
• Copies of ID cards
• Test results 
• Medical diagnoses

The Star Health chatbots feature a welcome message stating they have been operational since at least Aug. 6, said UK-based security researcher Jason Parker.

This comes just weeks after Telegram’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov was accused of allowing the messenger app to facilitate crime. Durov and Telegram denied any wrongdoing.

Telegram is one of the world’s largest messenger apps with 900 million active monthly users.

Emily Phelps, VP, Cyware had this to say:

  “Healthcare is one of the most sensitive sectors when it comes to security, given the highly personal nature of the data it handles. Breaches like this one underscore the risks when sensitive health data is exposed. To effectively safeguard healthcare infrastructure, a collective defense approach is essential. Sharing threat intelligence across trusted organizations allows us to anticipate and neutralize threats before they cause widespread harm. Shifting from reactive security models to proactive and adopting collaborative strategies that prioritize both the privacy and safety of patients is paramount.”

I am kind of floored that you can get such sensitive information simply by asking the chatbot. In short, someone has a lot of explaining to do as this should simply not happen.

It’s amazing what an arrest will make you do.

Pavel Durov who is the CEO of Telegram, and who was arrested by French authorities and now is facing charges related to child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, importing cryptology without prior declaration, as well as a “near-total absence” of cooperation with French authorities, has broken his silence on these events. You can read his full statement here. I encourage you to read his statement, but here’s the things that it covers:

• He plays the “this is unfair” card for most of this statement.
• He admits that policing what happens on Telegram has become harder over time. And he says it’s now his “personal goal” to “significantly improve things in this regard.”

I will also note that it appears that this process of better moderation is beginning. The Verge notes that Telegram has already updated its FAQ to note that private chats are no longer shielded from being moderated.

I guess that he’s hoping that if he does this, French authorities won’t ship him to some dark prison cell for a long time. I am not sure if that will work, but good luck to him I suppose.

Things just got real for Pavel Durov who is the CEO of Telegram. You might recall that French law enforcement picked him up at a French airport as part of an investigation into crime on the Telegram platform. Now Wired among others is reporting that French law enforcement have laid criminal charges:

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is forbidden from leaving French territory after being charged for complicity in running an online platform that allegedly enabled the spread of sexual images of children, creating an uncertain future for the messaging app that has become one of the world’s biggest social media platforms.

Durov was arrested on Saturday at 8 pm local time after his private jet landed at an airport near Paris. He was then detained for four days as part of an investigation into alleged criminal activity taking place on TelegramOn Wednesday evening, local time, he was indicted and forbidden from leaving the country, according to a statement released by the Paris Prosecutor. He was released under judicial supervision, the statement said, and must post a €5 million ($5.5 million) bail and report to a police station in France twice a week.

The Telegram founder was placed under formal investigation for a range of charges related to child sexual abuse material, drug trafficking, importing cryptology without prior declaration, as well as a “near-total absence” of cooperation with French authorities, Laure Beccuau, the Paris prosecutor, said on Wednesday.

French authorities noted an “almost total lack of response from Telegram to legal requests,” Beccuau noted. “This is what led JUNALCO [the National Jurisdiction for the Fight against Organized Crime] to open an investigation into the possible criminal liability of this messaging service’s executives in the commission of these offenses,” she said. The preliminary investigation began in February 2024 and initial investigations were coordinated by the OFMIN, an agency set up to prevent violence against minors, her statement added.

This is significant because if the French can make these charges stick, it will send a clear message to other online platforms that they have to play ball in terms of moderating content on their platforms, as well as playing nice with law enforcement. So that begs the question if Elon Musk, who has been outspoken about this case, is paying attention? Because if not, he could be next to get picked up by French law enforcement the next time he goes to France. Perhaps he might want to start rethinking his stance on free speech because Durov is as much of a free speech fanboy as Elon is, and look where that got him.

I’ve been writing about the ongoing fight between the Russian government and popular messaging app Telegram for a few weeks now. In short, Russia wanted Telegram’s encryption keys. Presumably so they can spy on Telegram users. Telegram said no. And as a result, here we are with Telegram being blocked in Mother Russia on the orders of a court:

The decision came a week after Russia’s state communication watchdog filed a lawsuit to limit access to Telegram messaging app following the company’s refusal to give Russian state security services access to its users messages.

With more than 200 million users worldwide, the mobile messaging app allows users to communicate via encrypted messages which cannot be read by third parties, including government authorities.

Here’s the ironic part, apparently the Russian government uses Telegram…. I wonder how they will do without it?:

The Kremlin uses Telegram to coordinate timings of regular conference calls with Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, while many government officials use the messenger to communicate with media.

When Reuters asked a person in the Russian government on how they would operate without access to Telegram, the person, who asked not be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue, replied by sending a screenshot of his mobile phone with an open VPN app.

Wait, aren’t VPNs banned in Russia? Of course they are. I guess that in Russia, everyone is equal. But some are clearly more equal than others.

In any case, this fight between the Russia government and Telegram is likely to escalate. It will be interesting to see what shape that escalation takes.

You might recall that I posted a story about Russia wanting to get its hands on the encryption keys related to Telegram, the popular messaging app. Which of course wasn’t going to happen because can’t. As a result, The BBC is reporting today that the Roskomnadzor media regulator has begun legal proceedings to block the app in the country.

My thought on this is simple. I think Russia can try to block Telegram, but I suspect that that won’t kill the service. So I expect a game of cat and mouse to commence. Let’s see who comes out on top.

Secure messaging service Telegram has lost a bid before Russia’s Supreme Court to block security services from getting access to users’ data. Those security services, namely the FSB which is Russia’s spy agency wanted access to Telegram’s encryption keys so that they can snoop on all communications. Here’s the problem with that…. At least beyond the fact that Russia wants to spy on Telegram users…. Telegram doesn’t hold users encryption keys. Thus it’s impossible to comply with orders to hand them over. Too bad the company has 15 days to comply or bad things will happen. Though their lawyer plans to appeal. We’ll see how that plays out.