MobiKwik CEO orders a forensic audit after denying any data leak from its digital wallet

• MobiKwik has been in the eye of a storm in the last few days over an alleged data breach of 3.5 million users.
• MobiKwik CEO Bipin Preet Singh released a statement that said that it will get a third party to conduct a forensic data security audit.
• The leak was exposed by security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia and confirmed by French security expert Robert Baptiste, who goes by the name Elliot Alderson.

Indian mobile payments startup Mobikwik has been in the eye of a storm in the last few days over an alleged data breach of 3.5 million users. While Mobikwik has denied the reports continuously, the company’s CEO Bipin Preet Singh released a statement that said that it will get a third party to conduct a forensic data security audit.

The leak was exposed by security researcher Rajshekhar Rajaharia and confirmed by French security expert Robert Baptiste, who goes by the name Elliot Alderson. The leak has been called one of the biggest data breaches recently in India.

However, Mobikwik said that it undertook a thorough investigation after the breach was initially reported in early March with the help of external security experts and did not find any evidence of a breach. Considering the seriousness of the allegations, it has said it will get a third party to conduct an audit.

“Some users have reported that their data is visible on the darkweb. While we are investigating this, it is entirely possible that any user could have uploaded her/ his information on multiple platforms. Hence, it is incorrect to suggest that the data available on the darkweb has been accessed from MobiKwik or any identified source,” said the company’s statement.

Mobikwik stressed that no misuse of wallet balance, credit card or debit card is possible without the one-time-password (OTP) which goes only to the user’s mobile number.

The allegations against Mobikwik come at a time when the company is headed for an initial public offering (IPO) later this year. According to an Entrackr report, the company had recently raised $7.2 million in a pre-IPO round.

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