The Rising Threat: Exploring the Consequences of Cybercrimes on Indians in 2021

How have cybercrimes increased in India?

As per the research conducted by various organisations and independent analysts, Ransomware attacks have been the most chronicled ones during 2021. With an overall increase of 38 percent, these attacks have targeted crucial industrial sectors and also individual consumers across the globe.  Comparatively from the first quarter and last quarter of 2021, in India, the increase has been a whooping 65 percent.  

Cyber-attacks through malware and scams have also been affecting mobile users globally, wherein the most profound threats found were adware and fleeceware. Cybercriminals mainly make use of the social engineering scams that make them collect individual data of their victims and device a personalised cyber-attack through them. Various fake campaigns created by cyber criminals on the pretext of an individual’s most commonly application use post pandemic (video conferencing / calling application) and deceive their victims as they have access to their device or camera. Similarly various other scams through SMS carrying a banking trojan called Flubot, tricked victims to reveal their personal information. Cyber Threats affecting mobile phones were more profoundly reported during the pandemic, most commonly found were Adware – around 54.7 percent during months between January to September; Secondly Fake apps – around 10 percent; Thirdly Banking Trojans – around 9.6 percent and Finally spywares around 2.3 percent. Additionally, fleeceware was also discovered by researchers in more than 200 applications  on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Generally, the most preferred cyber-attack by a fraudster to lure their victims is the phishing attack. This has also been predominantly increasing in organisations (around 40 percent) during 2021 globally, but comparatively lesser in India by 13 percent. Individual targets have also been increasing around 23 percent in India (lesser than the global average).

An additional scope that cyber attackers have begun to exploit business and individuals are through cryptocurrencies. The most affected countries were attacked broadly through two malwares – Crackonosh and BluStealer.  Crackonosh is a cryptocurrency mining malware that are attached to unlicensed version of most preferent games. BluStealer is malware possessing a combination of keylogger, document uploader and a cryptocurrency swindler. Apart from these two threat intelligence researchers also found other cryptocurrency-stealing malware that was distributed through HackBoss, a Telegram channel which, at the time of discovery, had stolen over $560,000 from victims.

Around 19,300 Android potentially harmful applications exposing the PII Personal Identifiable Information (PII) such as name, geolocation data, usernames and even passwords in certain cases were found to be existing. The most affected apps were associated to fitness, gaming, food delivery, lifestyle and mailing apps.

Cybercrimes have been a major issue in India and it's only getting worse. The number of cyberattacks and data breaches is increasing every year, making the need for stricter regulations imperative. While law enforcement agencies are continuously trying to fight cybercrime, people must also take it upon themselves to protect their online accounts against malicious actors by taking extra precautionary measures such as creating strong passwords and using two-factor authentication whenever possible. By doing so, we can all help reduce the prevalence of cybercriminal activities in India - protecting our personal information from unwanted exploitation. In accordance with the ongoing situation cybercriminals have been improvising their strategies and have been on par with the makeshift in technology. Every individual is being targeted globally, leading to paradigm shift of crime towards the digital world.  Hope we brace ourselves in the forthcoming year being more cyber vigilant.

Consequences of 2021 cybercrimes in India?

How can Indians protect themselves from cybercrimes?

Conclusion 

In today's digital age, cybercrimes have become a growing concern for individuals and businesses alike. India has seen a significant increase in cybercrimes in recent years, with 2021 being no exception. From phishing attacks to data breaches, Indians are facing numerous consequences as a result of these malicious activities.

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Source: Internet

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