In a major operation against digital extortion, Maharashtra Cyber police have arrested Abhishek Pratap Singh in Bengaluru for allegedly hacking into Dream11, a widely used fantasy sports platform with more than 20 crore users. Singh is accused of compromising the company's data and sending a threatening email, demanding payment to prevent the release of the stolen data on the dark web.
The incident emerged when Sporta Technologies Private Limited, the company behind Dream11, received a concerning email from an unidentified Gmail account on August 11th. The hacker alleged that more than 1,200 repositories from Dream11’s GitHub account had been breached. To substantiate the claim, the hacker included samples of the stolen data and threatened to sell the full data set on the dark web if his demands were not fulfilled.
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According to a report of TOI, The email read: “I want to bring to your attention that your GitHub account has been compromised, and over 1,200 repositories are accessible. For your reference, I have attached some examples of the compromised repositories and included the names of others for verification. Please review the attached information and let me know if you would like to take any action to prevent these repositories from being uploaded to the dark web.
Recognizing the potential damage from the leak, company officials promptly reported the incident to Maharashtra Cyber. After a thorough investigation, the cyber police, with support from local authorities, located the hacker at a residential building in Bengaluru.