Context

Medical details of over 120 million Indian patients have been leaked and freely available on the internet.

About

• This is as per a recent report published by Greenbone Sustainable Resilience, a German cybersecurity firm.
• What is even more worrying is that the number of data troves containing this sensitive data went up by significant number in the Indian context.
• The updated report also places Maharashtra at the top of the States affected by the lea

How the leak occurred?

• The leak was facilitated by the fact that the Picture Archiving and Communications Systems (PACS) servers, where these details are stored are not secure and linked to the public Internet without any protection, making them easily accessible to malicious elements. Hence the basic problem is with unsecured PACS servers.

What will happen because of such data thefts?

• There is every possibility for mining for deeper data analysis and creating profiles that could be used for social engineering, phishing, online identity theft among other practices.

Is such leak of public data common in India?

• It is quite common. Recent example is Government websites enabling the download of Aadhaar numbers to electoral data rolls being downloaded in bulk.

Why such problem is coming up in India?

• India still does not have Data Protection Law. European Union has got stringent General Data Protection Regulation; similarly U.S. has Data Protection Regulations.
• Hence India still lacks comprehensive legal framework to protect data privacy.
• The Draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2019 is yet to be tabled.
• The Bill was prepared after committee of experts chaired by Justice B.N. Srikrishnasubmitted the recommendations

Thereby, it is the time to bring robust Personal Data Protection Bill without further delay.