Summary: ICICI Lombard disclosed today that a senior executive inadvertently uploaded draft Q3 financial results to their personal WhatsApp Status. Although deleted within an hour, the leak of “Unpublished Price Sensitive Information” (UPSI) has triggered an internal inquiry and a report to SEBI. This follows a similar incident at Hatsun Agro last week.
Business Impact: High reputational and regulatory risk. Accidental social media leaks can lead to insider trading allegations and significant fines. It underscores the danger of using personal messaging apps for handling sensitive corporate data.
Why It Happened: Human error coupled with the blending of personal and professional digital habits (BYOD). The ease of “one-click” sharing on mobile platforms remains a major risk for high-ranking executives.
Recommended Executive Action: Conduct a specialized “Executive Digital Hygiene” session. Mandate the use of enterprise-managed, sandboxed applications for viewing financial drafts and strictly forbid the storage of UPSI in personal photo galleries.
Hashtags: #DataLeak #WhatsApp #ICICILombard #Compliance #SEBI #InsiderTrading #DigitalHygiene