Tag Archive for: Prone

Poor more prone to Aadhaar frauds


Srinivas Kodali, an independent researcher and technology activist, believes that the guidelines recommended by the Supreme Court have been largely ignored because of the Government’s insatiable need for surveillance on citizens, wanting to know everything from their telecom details to hotel stays.

Kodali also explains that this applies to the private sector as well, where surveillance capitalism is the new buzzword and first-party data is being captured. Questions to be asked, Kodali says, are where is the money going, who is behind it, and who is vulnerable?

A close look at the frauds by technology activists and researchers reveals that monetary frauds are being carried out at various levels and are prevalent across the country with mostly the poor and the uneducated being the victims.

Cyber security expert Ritesh Bhatia says that fraudsters come in all shapes and sizes. Various media reports show that Business Correspondents, Common Service Centre agents, government staff and gangs running an organised crime syndicate are believed to be part of the racket. Business Correspondents are appointed by banks for providing banking and financial services. On the other hand, the Common Services Centre (CSC) programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Government of India, and serves as an access point for the delivery of various electronic services to villages in India. The CSCs have been set up by the Ministry of Electronics & IT under the Companies Act, 1956 to oversee the implementation of the CSC scheme. But unfortunately, many of these staff have been found to be a part of the Aadhaar-enabled payment system or AePS-related frauds.

Kodali mentions that problems begin with the way Aadhaar has been designed. “I don’t know where and how I am using it. And this is a problem,” he says, pointing to news reports from Haryana where some fraudsters are believed to have stolen many if not all of the Haryana land registry fingerprints database. It is not just Haryana. Cases of AePS fraud are emanating from all over. Police in Mumbai, Jharkhand and Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana have cases under investigation.

“The fingerprints are not just in the UIDAI…

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40 Percent of Mobile Devices are Prone to Cyber-Attacks, Check Point’s New Report Reveals / Digital Information World


Recently, Check Point (renowned security firm) published its Mobile Security Report 2021. It goes without saying that the report was packed with some eye-opening findings relevant to cyber-attacks executed in 2020. The report stated that 40% of all mobile devices are prone to cyber-attacks.

Moreover, it was brought up that about 97% of companies worldwide dealt with mobile threats that utilized several attack vectors. Not to forget that at least one employee in 46% of the companies reportedly downloaded a malicious application on their phone.

With the rise of COVID-19 and the expansion of the work-from-home culture, the attacks on people’s personal gadgets (used for professional reasons) have been increasing significantly.

The same report also stated that nearly every company witnessed at least one smartphone malware attack last year. 93% of the said attacks stemmed from the mobile’s network.

It was mentioned above that about 40% of all mobile gadgets are at the risk of becoming a target of cyber-attacks. It’s interesting to note that many of these devices could evade the aforementioned risk if their chipsets could be repaired.

If the above-mentioned findings didn’t sound alarming enough, it was also reported that a 15% surge in banking Trojan activity was witnessed last year. These activities made it easier for the attackers to steal sensitive information such as individual users’ banking credentials.

Moreover, apps spreading fake news pertaining to the pandemic have also been found to be packed with malware. The malicious actors have been keeping themselves busy over the past 12 months by rolling out mobile malware. Furthermore, Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) teams are executing well-planned and targeted attacks to monitor users and steal confidential data.

It’s been predicted that over the next three years, about 6 out of 10 workers will be operating from home. So, expect cybercriminals to take full advantage of this fact. Also, Check Point found out that malicious actors have come up with a new attack in which they exploit a leading company’s Mobile Device Management (MDM) system to spread malware to over 3 out of 4 gadgets it manages.

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