Critical details related to bank accounts are reportedly up for sale on the dark web for a meager Rs 500 onwards. The latest evidence of the growing cybercrime comes after Indore police busted an international gang which operated from Lahore, Pakistan.
A TOI report notes that debit and credit card details, including particulars of the bank account the card is linked to, CVV number, phone numbers, and email IDs were discovered on the dark web by the Madhya Pradesh police cyber cell.
The police led the chase after Jaykishan Gupta, a banking professional, filed a complaint that Rs 72,401 was debited from his credit card on August 28. After investigation, the gang was found behind the data theft. This further led to the arrest of two gang members from Mumbai who were involved in the crime. The arrested individuals are former Cognizant and HDFC bank employees.
To find the culprits, the police laid a trap wherein a detective posed as a customer and bought debit card details of an Indore-based woman in exchange for Bitcoins. The trail led to the arrests in Mumbai.
MP cyber cell SP Jitendra Singh is quoted as saying, “Our investigation revealed that the card was used to buy air tickets for one Rajkumar Pillai of Mumbai. Pillai and his accomplice Ramprasad Nadar were rounded up.” He further added, “Pillai was a former employee of US-based IT service provider Cognizant and Nadar was employed with HDFC bank”.
This is not the first time that the Indian banking system has come under the scanner for security loopholes. What has also added fuel to the fire is the government’s guideline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with almost everything, including banking, applying for a passport and getting a gas connection. The Aadhaar database itself has suffered breaches in the past. Earlier this month, the DarkNet forum claimed to have access to data of over 6,000 Indian businesses. However, the UIDAI denied there has been a security breach of its database.
{BGR}