Cleartrip, an online travel aggregator, confirms customers' data breach

Flipkart-owned online travel aggregator Cleartrip, in an email to its customers, confirmed it has suffered a major data breach.

“This is to inform you that there has been a security anomaly that entailed illegal and unauthorized access to a part of Cleartrip’s internal systems,” the email read. The company however did not revealed any specifics on which data was accessed by the hackers but assured that no sensitive information was part of the breach.

“We are completely mindful that this would be of concern to you. We would like to assure you that aside from some details which are a part of your profile, no sensitive information pertaining to your Cleartrip account has been compromised as a result of this anomaly of our systems," the company said.

The online travel aggregator said it has reached out to the authorities and was taking appropriate legal action and recourse as per the law. It also advised users to reset their account password as a precautionary measure.

“We have identified a security anomaly in a few of our internal systems. Our information security team is currently investigating the matter, along with a leading external forensics partner, and is taking the necessary action. Appropriate legal action and recourse are being evaluated and steps are being taken as per the law.” a Cleartrip spokesperson said in a statement.

This is not the first time Cleartrip has faced a major data breach. In 2017, the company suffered a major data breach when its website was defaced for a few minutes by a group called Turtle Squad.

Further, Sunny Nehra, a security researcher and a founder of cybersecurity startup 'Secure Your Hacks', said that the hackers were selling the data on a private, invite-only forum on the dark web. However, the exact price at which the data was put on sale was not mentioned in the post.

Hrush Bhatt, Matthew Spacie and Stuart Crighton co-founded Cleatrip in 2006. In April 2021, Flipkart acquired Cleartrip for around $40 million.

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