Hacked? boAT gets ‘reality check’ as data breach affects over 7.5 million users after ‘better than Apple’ ad

Homegrown accessories brand boAT made headlines recently after it released an ad claiming that Indian buyers should “think better” and buy boAT gadgets instead of Apple products. The advertisement mentioned: “Don’t be a fan (referring to Apple), be the bow of the boat.” This matter quickly went viral on social media and caused disagreements among netizens. But the social media hype appeared to be short-lived.

boAT data leakage: customer mobile phone number and home address leaked

According to IDC, boAT, India’s leading wearables company, reported suffering a large-scale cyber attack, but the company did not disclose specific information and boAT has not acknowledged the attack. According to Forbes, the personal data of more than 7.5 million boAT product customers was compromised, and the data set is available on the dark web. The personal data that has been leaked includes names, mobile numbers, email IDs, home addresses and IDs of boAT users. On April 5, a hacker named ShopifyGUY came forward claiming to have accessed the leaked data of BoAT customers. A total of 755,000 pieces of user data were leaked.

After the data breach was reported in the media, some personal cybersecurity enthusiasts attempted to gain access to confirm the authenticity of the leaked data. There has been no official confirmation of how the data breach occurred. It is unclear whether there was a privacy breach on boAT’s part, or whether the fake boAT ads placed by scammers on social media compromised customer data.

boAT device users should be careful

Founded in 2016 by Aman Gupta and Sameer Mehta, the company is India’s number one wearables brand with a 19% market share. It has more than 26% market share in the TWS headset field. As far as BoAT users are concerned, they must be extra cautious when receiving calls from unknown numbers, especially WhatsApp video/audio calls from strangers.

Using compromised personal data, scammers can conduct phishing attempts by tricking customers into believing that their recent boat purchase will qualify them for better deals, cash back, and more.