ImpactGuru Crowdfunding Platform Suffers a Cyberattack

ImpactGuru, a Mumbai based crowdfunding platform appears to be the latest victim of a hit by hackers having suffered a cyberattack from days ago. The cyberworld has been faced with an increase in cyberattacks from the men of the dark web since the world was hit by the coronavirus pandemic months ago.

Attackers gained unauthorized access to the company’s website but it is not entirely clear as at the time of reportage if they were able to inflict major damage to the platform’s resources. The news of the suffered attack was confirmed by the ImpactGuru’s Public relations manager, Rochelle Alphonso, who explained that the attack on the platform was minimal with all personal information on the website remaining uncompromised.

ImpactGuru Response

ImpactGuru said they contacted all users on the 1st of May informing them of the security incident which involved illegal access to the company’s website by hackers and that they have fixed the cause of the breach within the same day and that the platform is back to normal and safe for transactions. They also disclosed that they have notified Cyber Crime cell and necessary law enforcement agencies in India on the incident with an internal investigation ingoing with aids from known security experts.

The company released a warning to the public about fake websites disguising as ImpactGuru just to swindle contributions, also empathized that they do not contact customers through WhatsApp, phone, SMS or even email asking for customer’s private details such as Credit/Debit card details nor their Pin/OTP. Customers must disregard such messages and report them to the appropriate authorities.

Impact Guru is a crowdfunding company established by Khunsboo Jainin and Piyush Jain in 2014. The company secured up to $500K in private funds from investing companies like Southeast Asia private fund, Fundnel, RB Investments, and Singapore VC. In May 2018, it also secured funding worth $2 million (INR 13 Cr) co-led by Apollo Hospitals Group & Venture Catalysts in Series A round of funding.

The cyberattack incident was first reported by INC42 and in an email sent to INC42, InputGuru cautioned their customers against sending donations through Bitcoins or any other cryptocurrency to any company masking to be InputGuru. It is unclear if this attack can be linked to the recent COVID-19 donations received by the crowdfunding platform.

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