HDFC Life Insurance Company, the country’s second-largest private insurer by premium, on Monday reported a data theft incident involving customer information. This marks the second data breach in the insurance sector in recent months, following a large-scale data leak at Star Health & Allied Insurance.
“We wish to inform that we have received communication from an unknown source, who has shared certain data fields of our customers with us, with mala fide intent,” HDFC Life said in an after-market regulatory disclosure.
In response, HDFC Life has initiated an information security assessment and data log analysis as immediate measures. “A detailed investigation is underway in consultation with information security experts to determine the root cause and implement necessary remedial actions,” the company stated.
This data theft incident comes just two months after the largest standalone health insurer Star Health faced a cyberattack. In September, millions of Star Health customer records were put up for sale through Telegram chatbots, revealing sensitive customer details such as medical records, full addresses, and phone numbers. The hacker, claiming possession of 7.24 TB of data, including six million claims records, later posted these details on a self-hosted website.
HDFC Life’s total premium collection rose 12% year-on-year to ₹29,738 crore in H1FY25, with the number of policies sold up by 22% to 582,000. HDFC Life did not respond to FE’s questionnaire regarding the business impact of the breach or the extent of customer data compromised.
Shares of HDFC Life closed flat at ₹688.90 on the NSE on Monday.