Star Health sues Telegram & Cloudflare for data leak

Insurer Star Health has sued Telegram and a self-styled hacker after reports surfaced of a hacker using chatbots on the messaging app to leak personal data and medical reports of policy holders.

The lawsuit comes amid growing scrutiny of Telegram globally and the arrest of its founder Pavel Durov in France last month, with the app’s content moderation and features allegedly abused for illegal activities. Star has received a temporary injunction from a court in Tamil Nadu ordering Telegram and the hacker to block any chatbots or websites in India that make available the data online, according to the order. Star has also sued software firm Cloudflare Inc in the lawsuit, saying the leaked data were hosted using its services.

“Confidential and personal data of ... customers and of the plaintiff’s business activities in general has been hacked and leaked by using the platform (of Telegram),” the Madras High Court order dated September 24 quoted Star as saying.

The court has issued notices to Telegram as well as Cloudflare in the matter, and will next hear the case on October 25.