Hyderabad: With banking activities moving to digital platforms and mobile devices, various studies done by Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and other organisations called for an increased awareness on digital security.
Cybercrime experts claimed that about 60 per cent of smartphone users were not aware of malware threats from software and applications downloaded via a third party source.
As per the information reported and tracked by the CERT-In, a total 44,679, 49,455, 50,362 and 27,482 cyber security incidents were observed during 2014, 2015, 2016 and mid-2017, respectively.
“Apart from installing and relying on strong anti-viruses on mobile platforms, there is no real solution for this issue. The users must also avoid visiting obscure and suspicious links,” said additional DCP Hyderabad cyber crimes K.C.S. Raghuveer.
Cyber security expert Sailesh Kumar said netizens should consider blocking legacy protocols on their networks to protect their devices from malware and ransomware attacks.
“Apart from WannaCry, we have threats from serious harmful malware and ransomware like XcodeGhost, YouMi, MobiSage, QuickSand etc. A few of these can read protected data like disks, folders and files on desktops and SMSs and OTPs on mobile devices. The threats are categorised into three sorts—data security, connectivity security and operating security. Hackers across the globe are generating thousands of malware, spyware and ransomware programmes every day. Netizens need to upgrade their knowledge,” he said.
To assist customers against malicious software, the Reserve Bank of India had issued certain guidelines and was also asking customers to be aware of new threats while transacting over mobile devices.
More than 15 cases were traced by a Hyderabad-based cyber crime consultant last year. In all the cases, malicious malware helped hackers gain access to One Time Passwords (OTP) whenever they arrived on phone during a transaction.
Earlier, fraudsters used to call victims to get their OTPs but now, through software, they were gaining fully automated access, said a senior official of cyber crimes.
The anti-virus companies claim that about four lakh malware and spyware programmes were identified daily, of which 50,000 were severe threats.
