A recent study revealed that around 5 million people worldwide have had their data stolen and sold on bot marketplaces with 600,000 from India.
This means that India, which is still waiting for a data protection bill to become law, is the most severely affected country in the world, accounting for 12% of all data on bot markets, which are used by cybercriminals to sell data. There are online marketplaces used for have stolen.
It is noteworthy that these markets differ from other dark web markets in that they can hold large amounts of data about a single individual in one place. After selling the bot, they guarantee the buyer that the victim’s information will be updated as long as the device is infected with the bot.
NordVPN’s study from Lithuania’s Nord Security revealed that the stolen information included user logins, cookies, digital fingerprints, screenshots and other details.
According to researchers tracking data since the inception of bot markets in 2018, an Indian’s digital identity costs around Rs 490 on an average.
It was said that at least 26.6 million stolen logins were found in the markets examined and these included 720,000 logins for Google, 654,000 for Microsoft and 647,000 for Facebook.
Additionally, the researchers also discovered 667 million cookies, 81 thousand digital fingerprints, 538 thousand auto-fill forms, a ton of screenshots and webcam pictures from various devices.
The stolen data was found after investigation of three major bot markets which are Genesis Markets, Russian Markets and 2Easy.
It is understood that while bot markets are becoming more popular, cyber criminals continue to use some common malware such as Redline, Wither, Raccoon, Taurus, and Azorult to steal data.
many cyber security experts India Highlighting such cyber challenges over the years as the country embarks on the path of complete digitization.
Even Dr. Pawan Duggal, a Supreme Court lawyer and chairman of the International Commission on Cyber Security Law, had earlier said that “cyber security is the need of the hour” in view of the cyber challenges faced by India.
For example, recently, two major cyber security incidents occurred in India, which raised massive concerns regarding national security. In the first case, the online services of AIIMS Delhi were disrupted on November 23 as a result of the cyber attack.
A few days later, it was reported that on 30 November, the website of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was hacked nearly 6,000 times in a span of 24 hours.
Several experts also pointed out the issue that the country’s critical infrastructure is largely under cyber threat and this includes healthcare organizations, banking as well as finance sectors.
Kunal Bajaj, Chief Business Officer, eSec Forte Technologies, told News18, “All stakeholders in the business ecosystem are unanimous on the need to protect data in the most safe and secure manner. Undoubtedly, this awareness will help users and companies not let their guard down and remain vigilant against cyberattacks that are becoming increasingly high-tech and sophisticated.”
“While the complexity of attacks is likely to intensify in 2023 and beyond, cyber experts are also coming up with new techniques to protect systems against data leaks and hacking attempts,” he said.
Bajaj also said that the most reliable way to keep these attacks at bay is to continuously upgrade systems, deploy new-age technologies, use trusted networks and never click on suspicious emails without verifying the credentials of the sender. To do. “These simple steps are quite basic but can go a long way in keeping you and your organization safe from the malicious intent of cybercriminals,” he said.
However, as the country awaits a data protection law, there is also a question whether the recently proposed bill and upcoming legislation will help India protect or ensure protection from such data theft.
Meanwhile, InstaSafe CEO and co-founder Sandeep Kumar Panda told News18, “Since bots are able to scrape so much data from market companies, there is a dire need to take appropriate cyber security measures. Will prompt to implement adequate cyber security measures around data protection and storage.Once the data security bill is implemented, companies will ensure to audit their applications and servers frequently to safeguard against bots and hackers “
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