Troves Of Iranian Hacked Insurance Customer Data On Sale

Anonymous hackers are selling 160 million customer information records cobbled together from 23 Iranian insurance companies for approximately $75,000.

The Iranian Leakage Tracking System (Leakfa) has confirmed the validity of the hackers' claim, stating that the information was obtained through a breach of the Expert Information Technologists (Fanavaran) company infrastructure.

The information offered for sale on the dark web includes details such as name, national number, date of birth, address, zip code, and mobile phone, all the data needed to possibly forge identities. The report of the hack first was published by a Telegram channel in August. 

Since August, Fanavaran Company, which describes itself as "the largest information technology company in the insurance industry in Iran", has blocked internet access to its website.

Mehdi Imanimehr, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the company questioned the validity of the hacking, in an interview with the Digiato website. But he also emphasized that he does not have the legal authority to comment on the matter.

Iran's Central Insurance Company (CIC), a regulatory body for the Iranian insurance industry, had denied the hacking in a statement published weeks after the news broke out.

However, in September, the Economy Minister dismissed the CIC's head Majid Behzadpour, and appointed Ali Ostad Hashemi to the position.

The new head's appointment has been the subject of considerable criticism by insurance activists, according to Etemad News.

As an ally of the Economy Minister, Ostad Hashemi lacks any related job experience in the field, and the Supreme Audit Court of Iran has declared it unlawful for him to perform the job because he also holds another position, Etemad reported in September.

During the new government's tenure that began in 2021, many changes have been made as the downward spiral of government-owned insurance companies intensifies.