Growing sophistication of cybercrime

Recently a CEO of a big company in Hyderabad was duped and Rs. 16 lakh was stolen online from his account. There was no OTP, no call, no online link was sent or opened. The CEO himself is very tech- friendly but there was no way to know how such an amount was stolen. Cyber-crime elite officers were on the case but could not figure out or understand . Invisible hand ? wireless crime ?

It is possible that the account of a CEO in Hyderabad is a case of synthetic fraud. Synthetic fraud is a type of identity theft in which criminals create a fake identity using a combination of real and fake information. They then use this fake identity to open new accounts, apply for credit, and make fraudulent purchases.

In this case, the attackers may have used a synthetic identity to open an unauthorized account in the CEO's name. They may then have used this account to transfer funds from the CEO's real account.

The fact is there was no OTP, no call, no online link sent or opened suggests that the attackers were able to bypass the bank's security measures. This could be because they had access to the CEO's personal information, such as his Social Security number or date of birth.

Alternatively, the attackers may have used a sophisticated technique to exploit a vulnerability in the bank's system. This type of attack is known as a "zero-day attack" because it takes advantage of a vulnerability that is not yet known to the software vendor.

It is also possible that the attackers used a combination of methods to bypass the bank's security measures. For example, they may have used social engineering to trick the CEO into revealing his password or other sensitive information.

The exact method used in this case is still under investigation, but it is clear that the attackers were able to bypass the bank's security measures and steal a large sum of money.

All the scanning was done from the mobile but no trace was found, only one clue was found from the CCTV footage in his office. This highlights the importance of staying vigilant and taking steps to protect your personal information.

It was found that the mobile charger of the CEO was replaced in the office and another USB charger (exactly identical make/model) was placed in its place.

Such a sleek operation was done by a cleaning staff who works outside office hours. All his data was copied, his entire mobile banking was hacked and money was smoothly withdrawn from the account.

In this modus operandi, the charger is first replaced and a micro-chip is already installed in that replaced charger and all the data is copied and hacked. And this is very difficult to detect .

S Mohini Ratna Editor  VARINDIA