Had earlier warned about card frauds: Assocham

The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (Assocham) has said that it had earlier warned about cards frauds, after the unprecedented security breach report earlier this week, which showed compromised card data of many private and state-run banks. Citing its recent study, Assocham said that India has become a favourite hunting ground for global hackers and criminals and was the third biggest target for the hackers after the US and Japan.

The Assocham-Mahindra SSG joint study had forewarned that the credit/debit/ATM card frauds as detected by some of the largest banks were waiting to happen as India has been on the radar of the global cyber criminals who hack into the computer servers using malware.  According to the report, internet frauds alone have cost India a whopping $4 billion (about Rs 24,630 crore) in 2013 as cyber criminals are using more sophisticated means like ransom ware and spear-phishing. It added that during the years 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, a total number of 21,699, 27,605, 28,481 and 36,554 Indian websites were hacked, respectively, by various hacker groups spread across worldwide.

Further, the study also found that mobile frauds to be an area of concern for companies, as 35-40 per cent of financial transactions are done via mobile devices and this menace is expected to grow to 60-65 per cent by 2017. Credit and debit card fraud cases top the chart of cybercrimes. There has been a sixfold increase in such cases over the past three years. It also said that about 42% complaints of online banking related to/credit/debit card fraud followed by Facebook (31%)-related complaints (morphed pictures/cyber stalking/cyber bullying). Other major cyber complaints were cheating through mobile (12%), hacking of e-mail ID (10%), abusive/offensive/obscene calls and SMS (5%), and others. These attacks have been observed to be originating from the cyberspace of a number of countries including the US, Europe, Brazil, Turkey, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria and the UAE. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have occupied the top three positions when it comes to cybercrimes registered under the new IT Act in India.

As per the Assocham there is urgent need for having public-private-partnership (PPP) in cyber security for protecting the critical online data and creating awareness amongst the public. The government and regulators should develop comprehensive cyber security policies and frameworks from the perspective of incentives, tax breaks and technological development. It added that India should ensure active collaboration with the other countries and global cyber security agencies through international treaties in order to understand the latest threats and take proactive security measures. In an unprecedented security breach affecting both private and state-run banks, 32 lakh debit cards are estimated to have been ‘compromised’ by cyber malware attack in some ATM systems.