Vinod M Jain
The Whitefield CEN Crime Police have registered an FIR against three employees of private IT company (MaxVal IP Services Pvt. Ltd),for their alleged involvement in stealing confidential company and customer data and threatening to disclose it unless a cryptocurrency ransom was paid.
Based on the complaint lodged on October 12 by (Balakrishnan Sukumaran),a company executive and board member of the company .
According to the complaint,the company received an email on September 15,2026,from an email in the name of the “Shiny Hunter Group”.
The sender allegedly claimed to have gained unauthorised access to the company’s computer systems and stolen confidential information relating to more than 40 customers and over five lakh email addresses.
The sender threatened to disclose the information unless 10 bitcoins were paid.
During an internal inquiry,the company suspected the involvement of employee Shivaram Nekkalapudi and others in the alleged breach of its systems and customer data.
The complaint further alleges that Shivaram offered to resolve the issue through an intermediary identified as Sai Kiran,described as an ethical hacker.
The intermediary allegedly demanded Rs.2.75 crore initially and subsequently Rs.2.25 crore.
When the company declined to pay,Sai Kiran reportedly expressed displeasure and advised the complainant to deal directly with the hacker.
On October 10,the company allegedly received another email demanding 30 bitcoins.
A subsequent internal subcommittee inquiry reportedly found the alleged involvement of Shivaram Nekkalapudi, who worked with the Salesforce Centre of Excellence, including the Product Engineering and Professional Services Development teams for Symphony,along with his subordinates Biswajit and Nikhil.
They are suspected of downloading sensitive company information and threatening to disclose it unless the cryptocurrency payment was made.
Based on the complaint,police registered a case under sections 66(C) and 66(D) of the Information Technology Act and Sections 316, 318(4) and 319(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for further investigation .
