Personal data of 7.5 million Boat customers allegedly leaked on dark web

Boat data breach

Boat, one of India's leading wearables brands in India, has reportedly suffered a massive data breach. According to a report by Forbes India, personal data of more than 7.5 million customers has been leaked on the dark web. The report cites a hacker named ShopifyGUY, who claims to have leaked the data on dark web. As per the report, the leaked data includes names, email IDs, phone numbers, and customer IDs of Boat customers.

Boat devices — smartwatches, headphones, true wireless earbuds — are used by millions in the country. According to a report by IDC, Boat is the number one brand in the Indian wearables market. The homegrown brand had 26% market share, as per data shared by IDC in February 2024. Boat is also the market leader in the TWS (true wireless) earbuds market in India. As per IDC, Boat has close to 34% market share in the TWS category.

Since Boat also sells smartwatches, chances of sensitive health information of users being leaked cannot be ruled out.

What Boat has to say

In an official statement shared with Moneycontrol, Boat said, “boAt is aware of recent claims regarding a potential data leak involving customer information. We take these claims seriously and have immediately launched a comprehensive investigation. At boAt, safeguarding customer data is our top priority.”

What impact data leaks can have on customers?

Data leaks can trigger a domino effect of problems for customers.  Loss of personal data on dark web could lead to financial information being exposed to bad actors. Furthermore, the loss of privacy can lead to targeted phishing scams. Data leaks do happen on dark web initially but ultimately find their way on platforms like Telegram, where it is allegedly sold freely. Users do remain vulnerable when their private data is leaked and chances of it reaching hackers and other threat actors remain high.