Unacademy is one of India’s largest learning sites. And here, it has suffered a data breach that leaks records of more than its 21,909,707 users.
According to a report from cyber intelligence firm Cyble, Unacademy’s database that contains personally indefinable information, is up for sale for $2,000 on the dark web..
Cyble said that the its researchers discovered this on May 3, 2020, with the last entry of the database dating back to January 26th, 2020.
Cyble that has also acquired the leaked database, said that the following fields are available on the leaked data:
ID, encrypted password, username, email address, first name, last name, date joined, last login, Is_Staff, Is_Active, and Is_superuser.
The threat actor mentioned to Cyble researchers said that the group is only selling the user accounts at the moment. However, the hacker claimed to also have access to the entire Unacademy databases.
The company’s co-founder, Gaurav Munjal, acknowledged the breach.
In a tweet, without specifying the number of users affected, he said that the company is "monitoring the situation closely and would like to assure you that no sensitive information such as financial data or location has been breached."
He added that user passwords inside the leaked database use PBKDF2 algorithm with a SHA256 hash as encryption methods. According to Munjal, this makes it "highly implausible for anyone to decrypt your passwords."
But still, he is advising users to change their password on other platforms if they were using the same password at multiple places.
This reflects Cyble's discovery, which found that there are numerous Unacademy accounts that use corporate emails. This includes accounts from Wipro, InfoSys, Cognizant, Google, and Facebook.
We follow stringent encryption methods using the PBKDF2 algorithm with a SHA256 hash, making it highly implausible for anyone to decrypt your passwords. I would still advice you to change your password on other platforms if you were using the same password at multiple places.
— Gaurav Munjal (@gauravmunjal) May 7, 2020
Based in Bangalore, Unacademy is one of India's largest online learning platforms boasting more than 14,000 teachers, with some of the top educators in the country, over a million video lessons, and over 20 million registered users (learners).
It started out as a YouTube channel in 2010, created by Gaurav Munjal. As a company, it was founded by Munjal, Roman Saini, and Hemesh Singh in 2015.
The company changes the way its users learn, by offering preparation material (free or via subscription) for several professional and educational entrance exams.
In just 6 months after formally launched, it has garnered more than 300,000 students that benefited from its over 2,400 online lessons and specialized courses.
With around $200 million of funding amount, including from General Atlantic, Sequoia and Facebook, Unacademy has a valuation of over $500 million.
As per one of the financial reports, Unacademy expects to earn annual revenue of around $300 million in the close future.
