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Cyber Security Threats
Ajay, a 24-year-old restaurant waiter from the winding lanes of Old Lucknow, thought he had stumbled upon an easy way to make money. A friend introduced him to a crypto trader who offered Rs 20,000 if Ajay allowed the use of his bank account for a day's transaction. Tempted, he agreed. The next morning, lakhs of rupees flowed into his account before these were withdrawn under someone else's instructions, and handed over to strangers. Within weeks, police knocked on Ajay's door. The money, they told him, was part of an elaborate international cyber fraud routed through his account. Shaken, Ajay turned approver, helping investigators identify other account holders and middlemen in a growing nexus that links the narrow lanes of Chowk, Indira Nagar, and Vrindavan Yojna, Sushant Golf City to handlers operating out of Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Police investigations by Crime Branch and Cyber Cell over the past three months reveal that dozens of mule accounts - bank accounts u
In a move to bolster digital resilience in the cooperative banking sector, the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSC Bank) has established the country's first cyber-security operation centre (C-SOC) to provide protection against increasing cyber threats. The facility, Sahakar Suraksha, has been set up in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, at a cost of Rs 50 crore, a senior official said. In an interview with PTI, MSC Bank Chairman Vidyadhar Anaskar said the bank's decision to launch the C-SOC stemmed from a pressing need to protect cooperative banks and their customers from cyber fraud. "There have been more than 10 lakh cyber attacks on cooperative banks in recent years, causing financial losses running into crores. One particular fraud alone caused a loss of around Rs 50 crore," he said. Anaskar said most cooperative and rural banks are ill-equipped to build robust cyber defence infrastructure. "They neither have the technical manpower nor the funds. That is why we have developed a shared ..
The 'Pratibimb' module, launched by the Union Home Ministry's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which tracks the locations of criminals, has led to the arrest of 6,046 accused, 17,185 linkages, and 36,296 cyber investigation assistance requests, the Lok Sabha was informed on Tuesday. In response to a question, Minister of State for Home Affairs Bandi Sanjay Kumar said a coordination platform for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), called 'Samanvaya', has been launched for cybercrime data sharing and analytics. It provides analytics based on interstate linkages of crimes and criminals involved in cybercrime complaints across various States/UTs, he said. "The module 'Pratibimb' maps the locations of criminals and crime infrastructure on a map to give visibility to jurisdictional officers. The module also facilitates the seeking and receiving of techno-legal assistance by Law Enforcement Agencies from I4C and other SMEs. It has led to the arrest of 6,046 accused, 17,185 ...
The Supreme Court on Friday said it would hear on April 22 pleas seeking a probe into the alleged unauthorised use of Pegasus spyware for surveillance of journalists among others. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh deferred the hearing after solicitor general Tushar Mehta, seeking an adjournment, said the matter had come up after a long time. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the petitioners, said only two petitions were listed on Friday and there were other connected petitions, which required a hearing. The bench directed the registry to fix all the matters on the issue on April 22. On August 25, 2022, the top court said the technical panel appointed by it to probe the unauthorised use of Pegasus found some malware in five of 29 examined cellphones but it could not be held that the Israeli spyware was used. After perusing the report submitted by former apex court Justice R V Raveendran, the top court said the Central government did not cooperate with the
India and Malaysia on Wednesday identified ways to deepen existing defence collaborations between the two nations, particularly in the fields of maritime security, multilateral engagements and defence industry, as they agreed to form a "joint focus group" to address non-traditional maritime security threats. Both sides also identified steps to further enhance cooperation in emerging areas such as cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Indian defence ministry said. The 13th Malaysia-India Defence Cooperation Committee (MIDCOM) meeting took place in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday. The meeting was co-chaired by Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh and Lokman Hakim Bin Ali, Secretary General, Ministry of Defence, Malaysia, "Both sides expressed happiness at the growing bilateral defence cooperation with regular engagements between the two armed forces in recent years," the defence ministry said in a statement. The two sides held wide-ranging discussions on effective and practi
India cannot afford to take cyber security resources even from friendly nations as it will be a threat to security and sovereignty of the nation, a senior government official said on Thursday. During a roundtable with start-ups organised by Start-up Policy Forum, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), Secretary S Krishnan said that the funding of start-ups especially in growth and later stage is crucial for entities in deep-tech space like cyber security. "There is a crucial story, especially in something like cyber security. The crucial story is that you have to have an independent resource within the country. You can't afford not to have it. This is not something where you can actually take it from other countries. It becomes a threat to our own sovereignty," Krishnan said. He was talking about the challenges that the government faced while financing start-ups and the need for the alignment of support with the state's strategic requirements. "It (importing cy
Shortage of skilled professionals, inadequate infrastructure, regulatory and policy gaps, and public unawareness about best digital practices are among key cyber security challenges in the country, according to a new report. India's Sherpa for G20 and former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant unveiled the report, prepared by cyber security solutions company Lisianthus Tech, recently in Delhi. The report noted that cyber threats are escalating in the country, with over 116,000 cyber security incidents reported in 2023, marking a significant increase from previous years. It recorded among most notable cyber threats faced by AIIMS, HDFC and Axis banks, Indian Railways and IRCTC, Paytm, Zomato, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum, and National Payments Corporation of India in recent years. "There is a significant talent gap, with an estimated shortage of one million cybersecurity professionals. Many sectors lack the necessary infrastructure to defend against sophisticated cyberattacks. .
India ranked as the third-largest country globally for phishing attacks after the US and UK, with its technology sector facing nearly 33 per cent of all such strikes, marking it as the most targeted industry, according to a report. The report by cybersecurity firm Zscaler showed a 60 per cent rise in global phishing attacks over the past year. The ThreatLabz 2024 Phishing Report gathered insights from 2 billion blocked phishing transactions between January and December 2023. "In 2023, India ranked as the third-largest country globally for phishing attacks, following behind the US and UK. The technology industry in India faced nearly 33 per cent of all phishing attacks, marking it as the most targeted sector among industries," the report said. The finance and insurance sector has become the prime target for cyber attackers and witnessed the highest number of phishing attempts in 2023, it added. "The finance and insurance sector experienced both the highest number of phishing attemp
India, which detected over 2 lakh ransomware attacks in 2023, is likely to see similar onslaughts, cyber security firm Kaspersky said on Wednesday. Kaspersky General Manager for South Asia Jaydeep Singh said researches conducted by the firm have shown that India is consistently among the top 12 targeted countries and territories for Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). "For three years in a row, file encryption has been the top problem faced by enterprises and organisations worldwide and in India. From the basic ransomware attacks like the Wannacry in 2017, we have reached the era of Ransomware 3.0 where we see triple extortion in the form of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), reselling of data, and public blackmailing. "This form of attack has a wider impact on the financial and reputation aspect of Indian companies," Singh said. Kaspersky claims to have detected over 2 lakh ransomware incidents on businesses in the country in 2023. According to the company, major ransomware gr
UN experts say they are investigating 58 suspected North Korean cyberattacks between 2017 and 2023 valued at approximately USD 3 billion, with the money reportedly being used to help fund its development of weapons of mass destruction. And the high volume of cyberattacks by North Korean hacking groups who report to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea's primary foreign intelligence organization, is reportedly continuing, the panel of experts said in the executive summary of a new report to the UN Security Council obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The report covering the period from July 2023 to January 2024 and reflecting contributions from unidentified UN member nations and other sources, was sent to the 15-member council as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has raised tensions in the region. He is threatening to annihilate South Korea if provoked and escalating weapons demonstrations. In response, the United States, South Korea and Japan have strengthened their ...
Cyber risks are cited as the biggest threat faced by Indian organisations with 38 per cent of respondents feeling highly or extremely exposed to it, says a survey. With this, cybersecurity has jumped two spots from number three to number one on the risk radar when compared to the 2022 Global Risk Survey, the PwC's 2023 Global Risk Survey- India edition stated. PwC said the final results of the survey are based on 3,910 survey responses from Business and Risk Management leaders (CEO, board, risk management, operations, technology, finance, audit) across 67 territories providing their views on the status and direction of risk in their organisation. 163 Indian organisations were a part of this survey. Other digital and technology risks are also top concerns for business leaders in India (at 35 per cent). To address the challenges, Indian organisations are making bold investments in cybersecurity with more than half of the respondents planning to invest in cybersecurity tools (55 per .