India not on radar of mobile ransomware hackers

Hyderabad: India has the second highest number of phone users in the world, but it does not feature in the Top 40 countries ranked on smartphone usage. 

This statistic is reflected in the trends in mobile ransomware attacks witnessed across the globe over the past two years.

India does not seem to be on the radar of mobile ransomware hackers. Based on a study conducted by researchers at the Kaspersky Lab, scammers are trying to extort money from smartphone users in developed countries. 

As many as 1.3 lakh smartphone users fell victim to mobile ransomware attacks in 2016-17, and 1.36 lakh the previous year. In 2016-17, 18.65 per cent of the victims were from the USA, which is at the top of the list of countries affected by the attack. Other countries that made it to the top five were Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy. The same countries, except for Italy, were in the top five countries hit by mobile attacks in 2015-16 as well, with Germany at the top.

An explanation for this trend could be that developed countries have higher income levels and advanced e-payment infrastructures that are frequently used. 

This offers criminals the opportunity to transfer amounts with just a couple of clicks. 

Cyber security experts say that in India, mobile banking and e-payments are not very common. Only a small urban population avails of these services.

Mr G. Srinivas Reddy, an expert in cyber security, says, “The number of smartphone users in India is low as compared to other nations, and mobile banking is yet to pick up in the country. Banks are trying to attract customers with offers and discounts. They are also prioritising the improvement of security through the use of one-time passwords (OTPs) and cutting down on the number of breaches by external sources.”

Smartphone users are, advised to exercise caution while downloading appsthey are not familiar with because scammers often seek access to data through such apps.

Attacks on Indian devices down by 10%
India was among the three countries affected by the recent Wannacry ransomeware, where cyberattackers infect devices, block access to information on computers and demand e-currency, mostly bitcoins, to decrypt the files.

Russia-based Kasper-sky Lab, a noted cyber security firm, stated that around 7.06 per cent users from India were subject to ransomware attacks. The good news is that the number of attacks are down by about 10 per cent between 2015-16 and 2016-17.

During the same time, ransomware attacks have increased by 208 per cent in Turkey, 200 per cent in China and 130 per cent in Spain.

According to Mr Gur-ram Srinivas Reddy, cyber security expert and guest faculty at JNTU Engineering College at Kukatpally, neither institutions nor individuals are fully equipped to fight ransomware. 

Hence, users in the country are seen as soft targets, he said.

He said awareness on cyber security was increasing, with focus being laid on making systems secure and foolproof. “Earlier users were not that attentive while checking non-standard sites or opening unknown links. There was no hesitation in making purchases on vulnerable or non-standard sites,” he said.

In the past month, cyber users have experienced two major ransomware attacks WannaCry and Petya.

WannaCry attacked users in more than 150 countries; the largest number of attacks are said to have occurred in Russia, Ukraine and India.a