Majority of cyber attacks are related to Debit/Credit Cards frauds and online money transfer frauds.
Bengaluru, 24th September: Bengaluru Cybercrime Police data states the number of Vishing attacks in the city are increasing. In 2020, vishing attacks contributed 37.14 percent of the total cases, which increased to 44.93 percent in 2021.
Harish, an auto driver said “I got a call saying my Aadhar card needs to be updated. He asked for an OTP. After I told him the OTP, I received a message that Rs. 10,000 got debited from your account.”
Vishing attacks are a type of social-engineering attacks which happen over the phone. Here people are tricked into divulging sensitive information directly or indirectly. The most common type of Vishing attacks is asking for OTPs on the phone.
Arjun, a Police Constable in Cyber, Economics and Narcotics Police Station said “Every year cyber criminals use different tactics to dupe people of money. In 2019 apart from Vishing attacks, the majority of frauds were OLX frauds where people would see cheap product listings and they would give some advance money but would never receive the product. In 2020 the majority of frauds were done on facebook where a facebook account was hacked and their relative would be asked for money on the pretext of an emergency. Therefore From 2020 we have started clubbing together similar cases. This was done to ease up the process of investigation.”
Despite these measures by the Police, data shows there is a rise in pending cybercrime cases. From 2020 to 2021 there was an increase of 20 percent in pending cases. Arjun said “In majority of cases cybercriminals are not located in the state where crime was committed. This created problems for us as there is a lack of coordination between the police of different states. We require a cooperative system of investigation among all states’ police.”
India, in 2017, came up with the National Cyber Security Coordination Centre (NCCC) to scan internet traffic and communications metadata to detect cyber threats in real time. Also, National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-in) acts as the nodal agency for coordination of all cyber alarms, emergency response and management. The National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) set up under IT Act 2000, acts as a nodal agency to secure India’s critical information infrastructure.
Experts say despite all these measures, India is still lacking in terms of enacting laws related to regulating misuse of information and data.
Anil Rachamalla, founder and CEO of End Now Foundation which is involved in cyber crime awareness among the general public said “There is a requirement of a strong data protection law in the country. I think the only way to reduce these cyber crimes is to increase public awareness. Also there should be courses related to digital awareness in schools.”
