Cyber cell of Meerut police has revealed a shocking breach of security administered by the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Vivo. The Meerut police revealed that more than 13000 mobile phones manufactured by Vivo are running on a single IMEI number.
An FIR has been registered against the Vivo communications and its service centres. This has been considered as a huge lapse in security on the part of the company.
As per reports, sub-inspector Asharam, who is posted in the office of Additional Director General of Police, Meerut, owns a Vivo mobile phone. When the screen of the mobile broke, he submitted it for repair at the Vivo service centre on Delhi road in Meerut on 24 September 2019. The service centre gave him his mobile phone back after changing the battery, screen, and the FM. A few days later an error started appearing on the display. As the phone was not working properly despite being serviced, he suspected foul play, and gave the phone to cyber cell, which later exposed the huge security issue.
The Vivo service centre manager in Delhi, on January 16, stated that the IMEI number had not been changed. The cyber cell, then, forwarded the IMEI number to the SIM operator used in the handset and asked for the data.
During the five-month-long investigation, it was found that as of September 24, 2019, over 13,500 Vivo smartphones were running on the same IMEI number and were active in different states across the country.
The police have handed a notice to Vivo India’s nodal officer Harmanjit Singh under Section 91 of the CrPC.
The company is yet to comment on the matter.
A similar incident occurred last year in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, wherein the police found over a lakh people using smartphones with the same IMEI number.
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