By Munsif Vengatil, Praveen Paramasivam and Aditya Kalra
New Delhi (Reuters) -the Haker, which has leaked sensitive personal data held by the Indian Health Insurer, has taken responsibility for sending threats to death and bullets to the company’s CEO and finance head.
The hacker, which passes by the nickname “Xenzen”, described its repression against Star Health and Allied Insurance Company in an email on March 31st to Reuters. The news agency announces them for the first time.
Star Health, the largest health insurer in India, has been confronted with criticism from customers and data security experts, as Reuters announced last September that Xenzen has expired sensitive client data, including medical reports. At that time, Xenzen told Reuters in an email that he had 7.24 terabyte data related to over 31 million star health clients and spoke to potential data buyers.
The News Agency did not independently confirm the identity or location of Xenzen, the accuracy of the facts set out in the email on March 31 or the motive of the hacker to target Star Health and its executive directors, which the email attributes to the refusal of the company for medical claims to certain customers.
In response to Reuters questions, Star Health CEO said in a statement that the company could not comment “due to a ongoing, severely sensitive criminal investigation” related to the leakage of its data.
Ksenzen said they had hidden bullets in two packages sent to Star Health’s central office in the southern Indian city of Chennai, in Tamil Nada, in February.
The email included photos showing the packages addressed to the CEO Anand Roy and the Chief Financial Officer Nillesh Kambly and a note inside, which reads: “Next will go to the head of ur and ur peoples. Tick Tik.”
Roy did not reply to a phone call asking for a comment while Cambly told the Reuters Public Relationship team, he would respond on his behalf. The company did not answer additional requests for comment.
The new Indian Express on Saturday announced that police in Tamil Neda was investigating the threats and had linked them to Xenzen.
Tamil Neda police did not respond to Reuters’ requests.
Three sources of Indian police have confirmed an investigation. They refused to be named as the question was confidential.
A police source said a man from the neighboring country of Telangana, who did not specify the source, has been arrested in recent days for claiming to have helped the courier packages participate in health on behalf of Xenzen.