Page 2 - Cyber Crime

Home Ministry authorises I4C to issue takedown notices under IT Act

Experts believe that this step would streamline the process of tackling cybercrimes at the national level but could create confusion between agencies over authority

Cyber crime cases in Delhi nearly doubled in 2022 from 2021: NCRB report

Cases of cyber crime in the national capital nearly doubled in 2022, according to the latest report released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The number of such cases rose from 345 in 2021 to to 685 cases in 2022, NCRB's comprehensive crime data for 2022 showed. In 2020, the count was much lower with only 166 cyber crime cases, it added. A senior official of Delhi Police said, "We are continuously working to promote cyber awareness and several campaigns are being carried out from time to time.

New cyber crime trend unravelled in UP, woman held under 'digital arrest'

The Uttar Pradesh Police has launched an investigation after a Noida resident found herself at the receiving end of a new cyber fraud trend, wherein she was duped of more than Rs 11 lakh and held under "digital arrest" for a day, officials said on Saturday. This is the first case in the new trend of "digital arrest fraud" lodged at the Cyber Crime police station in Noida. The thugs posed as police officials who mentioned the names of an IPS officer in the CBI and the founder of a grounded airline, associating the 50-year-old victim in a fictitious money-laundering case. A similar case was recently reported in Haryana's Faridabad where cyber thugs, posing as police personnel, got a woman "digitally arrested" for more than a week after convincing her that her personal IDs were used for illegal activities. The thugs then asked her to stay online via Skype and not share this information with anyone even as they kept a watch on her throughout the period. In her complaint, the Noida-based

80% cybercrimes from 10 districts, Bharatpur new Jamtara: Research

Rajasthan's Bharatpur and Uttar Pradesh's Mathura have replaced Jharkhand's Jamtara and Haryana's Nuh as the infamous hotspots of cybercrime in India, according to a new study by an IIT Kanpur-incubated start-up. The study also revealed that just the top 10 districts collectively contribute to 80 per cent of cybercrimes in the country. The findings have been mentioned by the Future Crime Research Foundation (FCRF), a non-profit start-up incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur, in its latest comprehensive white paper named 'A Deep Dive into Cybercrime Trends Impacting India'. Bharatpur (18 per cent), Mathura (12 per cent), Nuh (11 per cent), Deoghar (10 per cent), Jamtara (9.6 per cent), Gurugram (8.1 per cent), Alwar (5.1 per cent), Bokaro (2.4 per cent), Karma Tand (2.4 per cent) and Giridih (2.3 per cent) are the top contributors to cybercrime cases in India, collectively accounting for 80 per cent of reported incidence, the FCRF claimed. "Our analysis focuse

Parliamentary committee to hear RBI, IT ministry on cyber related crimes

A parliamentary committee examining the issue of cyber security and rising incidents of cyber crimes has summoned officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Electronics and Information Technology Ministry later this month to seek their views. The panel has already quizzed representatives of several tech majors on the issue. The parliamentary committee on Finance headed by BJP's Jayant Sinha has called RBI and MeitY officials on July 20, the first day of the Monsoon session. On the same day, it also called representatives of Google India separately on the same issue. In its last meeting, the panel had summoned representatives of Punjab National Bank and tech majors Google, Apple and Paytm to hear them on cyber security and rising cases of cyber and white-collar crimes. The issue was at the centre of deliberations at a meeting of the panel held last month too as experts from the industry were quizzed by lawmakers about various facets of unlawful activities, including fraud

Par panel calls banks, Google, Apple, Paytm to discuss rising cyber crime

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has called representatives of several banks such as the Punjab National Bank as well as global and national tech majors, including Google, Apple and Paytm, next week to discuss issues related to cyber security and rising cases of cyber crimes. The committee, headed by BJP's Jayant Sinha, has called the representatives of the Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of India, Yes Bank and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on July 4 to take oral evidence on "cyber security and rising incidence of cyber/white collar crimes". On the same day, it has separately called representatives of tech majors One97 Communications (Paytm), Flipkart, Google and Apple on the same issue. Cyber crimes have become an increasing threat with savvy online operators resorting to various tricks to defraud people of their money. The issue of cyber security and rising incidence of cyber crimes was at the centre of deliberations at a meeting of the panel h

53-year-old Mumbai man sells flat for Rs 1.3 cr, loses all to cyber fraud

The police found money was transferred to eight bank accounts in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh

Haryana sees 5,000% jump in cyber crime complaints since 2019

Haryana saw a jaw dropping rise of almost 5,000 per cent in cyber crime incidents since 2019, registering 66,784 such complaints in 2022, officials said on Thursday. The state in 2019 had logged 1,362 cyber crime complaints, which rocketed by 4,803.40 per cent by the end of 2022, according to the data. In the first three months of 2023 alone 25,659 complaints of cyber crime have been recorded, the officials said. The average monthly receipt of complaints increased from 272 in 2019 to 956 in 2022, 1,313 in 2021, 5,565 in 2022, and 8,553 in the first three months of 2023, they said. To deal with the rising number of complaints received on cyber crime helpline number '1930', Haryana police has increased call lines from six to ten and number of people manning the lines from 18 to 40. Haryana's Additional DGP (Crime) O P Singh said the victims of cyber crime were being attended to round-the-clock by police. Haryana Police recovered Rs 56.9 crore from the cyber frauds in the past three

Rising online frauds: Gurugram woman loses Rs 76 lakh in movie review scam

Citizens have been getting duped on the pretext of reviewing content and earning quick money

About 52% of organisations suffered data breach in past 2 years globally

Nearly 48 per cent of Indian organisations say their security stack is too complex, compared to 28 per cent in the rest of the world

Mumbai saw 70% rise in cyber crime cases in 2022: Dy CM Fadnavis

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said Mumbai witnessed a 70 per cent rise in cyber crime cases in 2022 compared to the previous year. At least 4,286 cases of cyber fraud were registered in Mumbai over a period of one year till November 2022, Fadnavis said responding to a question by MLC Bhai Girkar in the state Legislative Council. Till November 2022, the Mumbai police commissionerate recorded a 70 per cent rise in cyber frauds compared to the cases recorded till November 2021, the deputy chief minister said. As many as 1,294 cases of credit card and online frauds were registered in the city till November 2022 and of these, 37 have been solved, he said. There were 2,216 of cases involving online shopping, crypto currency investment, admissions in educational institutions, insurance, investment and jobs frauds registered during this period and 132 have been detected, he said. Of 4,268 cyber fraud cases registered in a year till November 2022, only 279 h

Cyber criminals' modus operandi changing, need to deal with heavy hand: HC

The modus operandi of cyber criminals is changing and the court cannot remain immune to sufferings of people who are cheated by app developers who misuse phone data and blackmail them, the Delhi High Court has said. The high court said it is saddening to see people are not aware that once they give access of their contacts and images to an app they have downloaded on their mobilephones, the developer, in case of being a criminal, misuses images, morphs them and sends them in inappropriate form to their social contacts, and thereafter, blackmails users. Its observations came while dismissing the bail plea of a man accused of extorting lakhs of rupees from several people by morphing pictures stored in their mobiles, and sending them to their relatives. "The courts also have to remain conscious of the social context in which the crime is committed and how it impacts the society. The same needs to be kept in mind while granting bail to an accused. The offences, as the present one, are .

Telangana saw over 10,000 cases of cyber crime in 2021, reveals report

Cyber crimes in Telangana have doubled to 10,303 cases in 2021 from 5,025 cases in 2020 with Cyberabad topping the chart with 4,412 felonies, according to a report. Revealing data, the Telangana Socio Economic Outlook 2023 said,"As many as 10,303 cases of cyber crime were registered in 2021 as against 5,025 cases in 2020, an increase of 105.03 per cent. The highest number of cases were reported from the police commissionerates of Cyberabad (4,412) followed by Hyderabad (3,303) and Rachakonda (1,548), it said. Cyber crime is a rapidly evolving transnational crime committed across borders and affects individuals and societies globally, said the report. It said the Telangana government is trying to use technical assistance in capacity-building, prevention, creating awareness, increasing cooperation, collecting data, researching and analysing cybercrime, the report said. The Telangana Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (T4C) was set up in 2021 to provide round-the-clock assistance to victi

Hackers actively exploiting VMware bug in massive ransomware campaign

France's computer emergency response team (CERT-FR) has warned that hackers have been targeting 'VMware ESXi' servers since February 3

Need stringent law to curb unlawful Internet behaviour, cyber crime: NHRC

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson Justice (Retd) Arun Kumar Mishra on Thursday called for a stringent law to deal with "unlawful Internet behaviour and cyber crimes." He was speaking after the inauguration of the 25th All India Forensic Science Conference at the National Forensic Sciences University in Gandhinagar. "It is necessary to promote cyber ethics. And there should be stringent legislation by the government to penalise and punish unlawful Internet behaviour and cyber crimes," the former Supreme Court judge said. Many countries have amended their laws "specifically to deal with cyber crimes along with the advent of newer kinds of crimes," he said. Freedom of expression applicable for "social media and cyber space" is not "larger" than what is granted to individuals or the media, Mishra said. "Freedom of expression under Article 19 of the Constitution given to the media or individuals is the same as that given to the social media or the cyberspace, it is .

ICC falls prey to online scam, loses close to $2.5 million: Report

The ICC has allegedly lost close to USD 2.5 million after becoming a victim of cyber crime, according to a report. The incident of phishing, which originated in the USA, took place last year, ESPNCricinfo reported. "The route used by fraudsters to commit the financial scam was Business E-mail Compromise (BEC), also known as e-mail account compromise, which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) describes as 'one of the most financially damaging online crimes'," the report stated. An investigation is underway as the ICC, which is not commenting on the matter, reported the incident to law enforcement agency in the US. How the scam took place is not yet known. "It is not yet known what route exactly the fraudsters took to get the money transferred from the ICC account - whether they had got in touch directly with someone at the head office in Dubai, or had targeted an ICC vendor or consultant. "It is also not confirmed whether the transaction was done in one single payment or the

Cyber crime cases in Mumbai rise by more than 63% in 2022: Report

As far as detection is concerned for the 2019-2022 period, 1,292 cases were solved, including 346 in 2022, out of the 12,261 registered cases, the report said

Two African nationals held for duping Gujarat woman of Rs 34 lakh

Two African nationals were arrested for allegedly duping an elderly woman from Gujarat's Ahmedabad of Rs 34 lakh by befriending her online using fake identities and asking her to pay money to get gifts and foreign currency released from Customs, police said on Monday. Nigerian national Gift Olabisi Okafor (29) and her accomplice, Aka Gerard (32) from Ivory Coast, were apprehended in New Delhi on Sunday and brought here on Monday, an official from Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch said. Some other gang members involved in the crime are yet to be arrested, he said. According to an official release, a 63-year-old woman approached the Cyber Crime Branch on December 23 alleging that some unidentified persons had duped her of Rs 33.92 lakh. As per the FIR, a person with the Facebook ID 'Andres Martinez' had befriended the elderly woman online in September claiming that he was a rich businessman from Scotland and would like to marry her. When she refused, the person won her trust with frequen

N Korean hackers steal NFTs using nearly 500 phishing domains: Report

The use of "malicious Mints" which tricked the victims into thinking they are minting a real NFT by connecting their wallet to the website, was one of the strategies implemented

1.2 mn cyber security incidents reported till November this year: MoS IT

Over 12.67 lakh cyber security incidents have been reported to and tracked by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team till November this year, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar informed Parliament on Wednesday. Last year, 14.02 lakh cyber security incidents were recorded in the country, according to information shared by Chandrasekhar in the Lok Sabha. "With the borderless cyberspace coupled with the anonymity, along with rapid growth of Internet, rise in cyber attacks and cyber security incidents is a global phenomenon. Government is fully cognizant and aware of various cyber security threats. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is mandated to track and monitor cyber security incidents in India," the minister said. He said in the recently notified cyber security direction CERT-In has now made it mandatory for all incidents to be mandatorily reported to CERT-In.