Not only Covid-19 cases, cybercrime surges in India too: Know how

The law enforcement agencies in India are facing a tough time to deal with increasing cases of cybercrime, especially during the lockdown period. According to the government’s data cases of cybersecurity are rising at a sharp pace as over 3.5 lakh such cases were reported in July to August this year, which is marginally low than the total of 3.9 lakh cases in 2019.

Data released by the government shows that cybersecurity-related incidents almost tripled between January and August this year. Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which is the nodal agency in handling cybersecurity-related matter said that in 2019 a total of 3.9 lakh cybersecurity incidents were reported but in 2020 this number has reached nearly 7 lakh till the month of August.

The Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Sanjay Dhotre informed the Lok Sabha that data complied by CERT-In shows that for 2020, the number of attacks from January to March was 1,13,334; April to June was 230,223;  and July to August was 353,381. This means cases tripled during July and August as compared to attack done between January and March.

CERT-In is operating 24X7 Incident Response Helpdesk. CERT-In has tracked, received reports and handled a total number of 53117, 208456, 394499 and 696938 cybersecurity incidents during the year 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 (till August) respectively, he said.

FACTORS BEHIND INCREASING NUMBERS:

There are multiple factors driving this increase in cybersecurity incidents, but the foremost reason behind the spike in cases are more people are working from home and are dependent on the internet for work.

–        More people are online for work and leisure so it is easy to track and trap them.

–        Due to lockdown most of the essential services are being provided through digital platforms so cybercriminals exploited this opportunity. Criminals duped many on the pretext of starting home delivery facility of alcohol.

–        Most of the payments for services were also done through e-wallets or apps so a lot of phishing attacks were seen around it.

–        Banks are operating with limited staff and customers are advised to use Internet banking or phone banking to maintain physical distancing. There has been a spike in phishing calls, emails and SMSes to bank customers pretending to be bank officials and asking them for sensitive information such as their account number, credit or debit card number, CVV, OTP etc.

– Fake job portals and job offers were made to trap job seekers and fresh graduates by cybercriminals.

–  Fake Covid-19 related websites were started during this period. Several fake Apps and portals were active within a few minutes of PM Narendra Modi’s accouchement of PM care scheme for building infrastructure to fight against Covid-19.

–         Unemployment and job loss has pushed many into criminal activities. Many criminal during police interrogation has admitted to learning hacking skills from the internet.

–        As everyone was working remotely and most of the communication was through emails, hackers got the opportunity to send spoof mail and transfer fund in their accounts by posing as a customer.

–        Ransomware attacks on companies increased many folds.

–        Many cyber criminals made false claims of vaccine or breakthrough medicine related to deadly coronavirus to data-mine and trap gullible people.