Ahmedabad: It could well be one of the biggest data thefts in the country. An Ahmedabad based BPO owner, Maulik Dave, has been accused of data theft from a Florida-based company and selling them to its rival companies in the US.
Dave stole data worth Rs 1 crore from the company. With the help of his accomplice based in the US, Milan Dabhi, he sold the data to competitors of the company in the US.
The nondescript office of Business Bee Solutions along the SG Road, a BPO working in the IT sector, has been closed for three months soon after Florida-based company Noble Ventures Inc. cancelled their contract with Dave. He then shifted his operations to his home in Vejalpur. Dave had got a contract for two years for designing and maintenance of the website of Noble Ventures Inc. This company provides customer database of 1.25 crore US citizens to various marketing companies in the US and also has a client-base in other international markets.
When his contract got cancelled, Dave tapped into the data bank of Noble Ventures Inc., and stole 85 lakh records and sold it to the company’s rivals in the US.
The US company smelt a rat and sent an email to the Ahmedabad city crime branch. Investigations revealed that Dave had indeed tapped into the server of Noble Ventures Inc.
On Wednesday, assistant commissioner of police, crime branch, Usha Rada, led a raiding party to Dave’s house in Vejalpur. Dave has been arrested and booked for data theft, his computer has also been seized. “The US company owners got suspicious when they detected data loss from the server. When they started retrieving the data, they came upon etraces of Dave. Then the company mailed us,” said Rada.
“The cost of data stolen is estimated to be no less than Rs one crore. However, officials said that it is just the first data block. There could be more,” said investigating police officers.
Police are also scrutinizing two computers, three laptops and three outer storage devices that contains data. Officials will present Dave in court on Thursday to get his remand for further information. How Dave got the password The Florida company had given Dave the password to access their server in January, as he claimed that he often faced server connection error.
In March, the contract ended and Dave started his illegal activities.
Officials explained that Dave had sought the password and user ID on pretext of server connection error. But, he later started using it to steal the database that included EIN, SSN, TAX IDs along with other information of 1.25 crore residents of the US and other countries.
“We are hunting for other accused Milan, who worked as an executive for another unit of Noble Ventures in the US. We are in possession of Dave’s financial transactions that indicate that he had financial transactions with Dabhi. He was one of the key persons who marketed the database to other customers in the US. The duo also sent some of the sample data to two major companies,” said Rada.
Parth Shastri TNN
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