Exclusive: Highly sensitive stolen data on defence drone tech surfaces on dark net

Highly sensitive source code, design files, and other data linked to drone technology used in the defence sector—allegedly stolen by former employees of NewSpace Research and Technologies Private Limited—have surfaced on the dark web. The leak has raised serious concerns over potential defence espionage and national security breaches.  

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Director General of Police (DGP), Pronab Mohanty has been constituted on the directions of the High Court to probe the same. Mr. Mohanty is also the head of Cyber Command that was formed recently by the Karnataka government.

In connection to the data theft by previous employees, the CEO of NewSpace, Sameer Joshi, first registered a complaint with the North East CEN police station on December 25, 2024. In the FIR it was alleged that then Vice President of the company Prabhat Sharma and others stole the data and established a new company identified as Lenviz Technologies Private Limited using the same data.  Lenviz is based out of Noida, Uttar Pradesh and NewSpace is based out of Bengaluru in Karnataka. 

The sources familiar with the forensic investigation said the internal audit and forensic analysis of the laptops and other devices of the former employees found that data was leaked to the dark net. The SIT will now be finding when the sensitive defence data was traded and who purchased it. This is crucial to the investigation because the Indian Army in 2023 had signed a contract with Newspace for drones that can hit targets with 5-10 kg explosives.

NewSpace found out about data theft after 18 months of internal audit.Certain encrypted documents (decrypted later for reading) accessed by BLR.POST show that Mr. Sharma and others stole source codes, CAD designs, confidential data pertaining to drones, copyright information, project files and other proprietary information. The documents also revealed that these sensitive defence data has made its way into darknet. The probing agency will be looking into wallets to further extract information of sellers and purchasers on the darknet. 

The documents also show that following the resignation of two employees an IT audit of their laptops by the NewsSpace has revealed the existence of a separate Autodesk Fusion workspace labeled “Lenviz Tech”. 

It is also revealed that these two employees who accused number 2 and 3 in the case illegally hacked, copied, and shared highly sensitive information including source codes and original designs, with Lenviz. The said accused conspired to erase the evidence related to the crime.

The stolen information was allegedly used by Lenviz to develop similar products to those of the complainant’s company and to secure defense contracts. The hack and other illegal activities were executed on the direction of Mr. Sharma. 

Garima Sharma, Director of Lenvin and spouse of Mr. Sharma responding to the allegations said “the allegations are false and baseless.” Miss. Sharma is also accused in the case.