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Supreme Court Grants Interim Bail to Cybersecurity Researcher
The Supreme Court has granted interim bail to cybersecurity researcher Himanshu Pathak in a case brought by Chennai Police over alleged unauthorised access to computer networks and extraction of insurance data. The…
The Story in Brief
The Supreme Court has granted interim bail to cybersecurity researcher Himanshu Pathak in a case brought by Chennai Police over alleged unauthorised access to computer networks and extraction of insurance data. The court issued notice to Tamil Nadu, returnable on September 18, and asked the State to provide details of any similar cases or criminal antecedents involving Pathak.
The Madras High Court had rejected his plea to quash the chargesheet under the Information Technology Act. Pathak says he found an unsecured legacy API while accessing his father’s insurance records and informed CERT-In. The prosecution alleges he extracted about 8,000 policyholder records, sought consultancy and maintenance fees, and threatened to leak customer information.
The Indian Opinion
Claims that this is simply a heroic cybersecurity disclosure ignore the prosecution’s allegations about thousands of records and payment demands. The opposite claim, that any access to an exposed system is automatically hacking, also skips the legal test of authorisation and intent. The Supreme Court’s eventual view on the chargesheet, along with the evidence on the alleged 8,000 records and communications, will matter more than the competing labels.
Source: thehindu.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
