PHISHING ATTACKS IN INDIA

What do mean by phishing ?

 Phishing is a type of online fraud when con artists pretend to be reputable companies or organizations in order to deceive victims into giving up personal information like passwords or credit card details. Phishing efforts can take the shape of emails, websites, or even text messages, and can appear authentic at first glance. A phishing attempt can be identified in a number of ways, including misspellings, odd syntax, and sudden requests for personal information. Do not respond to the message if you believe you are being targeted by a phisher; instead, report the incident to the relevant authorities.

Phishing in India !!!!

India is a vast and developing country. Digitalization is being done at a speedy rate. This brings a lot of ease for the general public but also creates a pool of opportunities for scammers, hackers, and con men. As per an article by Times of India Between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2022, clients lost roughly 1500 crores in these scams. It is a myth that people from rural areas are easy targets for hackers or scammers because they have little to no prior knowledge of technology and these attacks. On the other hand, people from urban areas are seen as the hot targets for scammers because they have good internet connections through which scams can be carried out and it is expected that they will have more money in their bank accounts. According to the Indian state of Jharkhand, Jamtara is home to a city and a designated notified area in the Jamtara Sadar subdivision of the larger district. As a result, it has earned the moniker "India's phishing capital".  As a result of numerous phishing incidents that took place across the country, it was given this name. It was reported that Indian police from 12 different states visited  Jamtara on  23  separate occasions between  April 2015  and  March  2017.  According to some estimates,  one of the most underdeveloped districts was responsible for carrying out  80%   of all cybercrimes. Involved parties purchased high-end SUVs and built extravagant bungalows next to dilapidated cottages in the same neighborhood with that looted money 

This list could go on indefinitely, but the point is to raise awareness about the seriousness of  India's vulnerability to cyberattacks and the urgency of finding a long-term solution.

How can we protect ourselves?

Not responding to any suspicious emails, messages, or phone calls is the easiest way to protect yourself from phishing. Real financial organizations are easy to spot because they never request your bank account information by email. Email is not a secure method of sending any kind of sensitive data. We may also check for signs of security on a website by looking for a symbol in the status bar of our browser or a URL that starts with "https:" ( "s" stands for "secure"). Figure 1 shows the basic architecture of Phishing Attacks.

 If we want to check whether our emails or our phone numbers have been compromised or not, we can check on a site such as “Have I Been Pwned?" Have I Been Pwned allows you to search across multiple data breaches to see if your email address or phone number has been compromised?

Dr. Manish Bhardwaj,

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Aman Sharma

Department of Computer Science and Information Technology