Alert! Purina’s Emerging Threat: Cloning Biometrics for Bank Fraud
Introduction
In the age of advanced technology, Cyber threats continue to grow, and so are the cyber hubs. A new name has been added to the cyber hub, Purnia, a city in India, is now evolving as a new and alarming menace-biometric cloning and financial crimes. This emerging cyber threat involves replicating an individual’s biometric data, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, to gain unauthorised access to their bank accounts and carry out fraudulent activities. In this blog, we will have a look at the methods employed, the impact on individuals and institutions, and the necessary steps to mitigate the risk.
The Backdrop
Purnia, a bustling city in the state of Bihar, India, is known for its rich cultural heritage, However, underneath its bright appearance comes a hidden danger—a rising cyber threat with the potential to devastate its citizens’ financial security. Purnia has seen the growth of a dangerous trend in recent years, such as biometric cloning for financial crimes, after several FIRs were registered with Kasba and Amaur police stations. The Police came into action and started an investigation.
Modus Operandi unveiled
The modus Operandi of cyber criminals includes hacking into databases, intercepting data during transactions, or even physically obtaining fingerprints of facial images from objects or surfaces. Let’s understand how they gathered all this data and why Bihar was not targeted.
These criminals are way smart they operate in the three states. They targeted and have open access to obtain registry and agreement paperwork from official websites, albeit it is not available online in Bihar. As a result, the scam was conducted in other states rather than Bihar; further, the fraudsters were involved in downloading the fingerprints, biometrics, and Aadhaar numbers of buyers and sellers from the property registration documents of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, and Telangana.
After Cloning fingerprints, the fraudster withdrew money after linking with Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) from various bank accounts. The fraudsters stamped the fingerprint on rubber trace paper and utilised a polymer stamp machine and heating at a specific temperature with a chemical to make duplicate fingerprints used in unlawful financial transactions from several consumers’ bank accounts.
Investigation Insight
After the breakthrough, the police teams recovered a large number of smartphones, ATM cards, rubber stamps of fingerprints, Aadhar numbers, scanners, Stamp machines, laptops, and chemicals, and along with this, 17 people were arrested.
During the investigation, it was found that the cybercriminals employ Sophisticated money laundering techniques to obscure the illicit origins of the stolen funds. The fraudsters transfer money into various /multiple accounts or use cryptocurrency. Using these tactics makes it more challenging for authorities to trace back money and get it back.
Impact of biometric Cloning scam
The Biometric scam has far-reaching implications both for society, Individuals, and institutions. These kinds of scams cause financial losses and create emotional breakdowns, including anger, anxiety, and a sense of violation. This also broke the trust in a digital system.
It also seriously impacts institutions. Biometric cloning frauds may potentially cause severe reputational harm to financial institutions and organisations. When clients fall prey to such frauds, it erodes faith in the institution’s security procedures, potentially leading to customer loss and a tarnished reputation. Institutions may suffer legal and regulatory consequences, and they must invest money in investigating the incident, paying victims, and improving their security systems to prevent similar instances.
Raising Awareness
Empowering Purnia Residents to Protect Themselves from Biometric Fraud: Purnia must provide its inhabitants with knowledge and techniques to protect their personal information as it deals with the increasing issue of biometric fraud. Individuals may defend themselves from falling prey to these frauds by increasing awareness about biometric fraud and encouraging recommended practices. This blog will discuss the necessity of increasing awareness and present practical recommendations to help Purnia prevent biometric fraud. Here are some tips that one can follow;
- Securing personal Biometric data: It is crucial to safeguard personal biometric data. Individuals should be urged to secure their fingerprints, face scans, and other biometric information in the same way that they protect their passwords or PINs. It is critical to ensure that biometric data is safely maintained and shared with only trustworthy organisations with strong security procedures in place.
- Verifying Service providers: Residents should be vigilant while submitting biometric data to service providers, particularly those providing financial services. Before disclosing any sensitive information, it is important to undertake due diligence and establish the validity and reliability of the organisation. Checking for relevant certificates, reading reviews, and getting recommendations can assist people in making educated judgments and avoiding unscrupulous companies.
- Personal Cybersecurity: Individuals should implement robust cybersecurity practices to reduce the danger of biometric fraud. This includes using difficult and unique passwords, activating two-factor authentication, upgrading software and programs on a regular basis, and being wary of phishing efforts. Individuals should also refrain from providing personal information or biometric data via unprotected networks or through untrustworthy sources.
- Educating the Elderly and Vulnerable Groups: Special attention should be given to educating the elderly and other vulnerable groups who may be more prone to scams. Awareness campaigns may be modified to their individual requirements, emphasising the significance of digital identities, recognising possible risks, and seeking help from reliable sources when in doubt. Empowering these populations with knowledge can help keep them safe from biometric fraud.
Measures to Stay Ahead
As biometric fraud is a growing concern, staying a step ahead is essential. By following these simple steps, one can safeguard themselves.
- Multi-factor Authentication: MFA is one of the best methods for security. MFA creates multi-layer security or extra-layer security against unauthorised access. MFA incorporates a biometric scan and a password.
- Biometric Encryption: Biometric encryption securely stores and transmits biometric data. Rather than keeping raw biometric data, encryption methods transform it into mathematical templates that cannot be reverse-engineered. These templates are utilised for authentication, guaranteeing that the original biometric information is not compromised even if the encrypted data is.
- AI and Machine Learning (ML): AI and ML technologies are critical in detecting and combating biometric fraud. These systems can analyse massive volumes of data in real-time, discover trends, and detect abnormalities. Biometric systems may continually adapt and enhance accuracy by employing AI and ML algorithms, boosting their capacity to distinguish between legitimate users and fraudulent efforts.
Conclusion
The Biometric fraud call needs immediate attention to protect the bankers from the potential consequences. By creating awareness, we can save ourselves; additionally, by working together, we can create a safer digital environment. The use of biometric verification was inculcated to increase factor authentication for a banker. However, we see that the bad actors have already started to bypass the tech and even wreak havoc upon the netizens by draining their accounts of their hard-earned money. The banks and the cyber cells nationwide need to work together in synergy to increase awareness and safety mechanisms to prevent such cyber crimes and create effective and efficient redressal mechanisms for the citizens.
Reference
Related Blogs
Introduction
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an advisory on March 1 2024, urging platforms to prevent bias, discrimination, and threats to electoral integrity by using AI, generative AI, LLMs, or other algorithms. The advisory requires that AI models deemed unreliable or under-tested in India must obtain explicit government permission before deployment. While leveraging Artificial Intelligence models, Generative AI, software, or algorithms in their computer resources, Intermediaries and platforms need to ensure that they prevent bias, discrimination, and threats to electoral integrity. As Intermediaries are required to follow due diligence obligations outlined under “Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code)Rules, 2021, updated as of 06.04.2023”. This advisory is issued to urge the intermediaries to abide by the IT rules and regulations and compliance therein.
Key Highlights of the Advisories
- Intermediaries and platforms must ensure that users of Artificial Intelligence models/LLM/Generative AI, software, or algorithms do not allow users to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update, or share unlawful content, as per Rule 3(1)(b) of the IT Rules.
- The government emphasises intermediaries and platforms to prevent bias or discrimination in their use of Artificial Intelligence models, LLMs, and Generative AI, software, or algorithms, ensuring they do not threaten the integrity of the electoral process.
- The government requires explicit permission to use deemed under-testing or unreliable AI models, LLMs, or algorithms on the Indian internet. Further, it must be deployed with proper labelling of potential fallibility or unreliability. Further, users can be informed through a consent popup mechanism.
- The advisory specifies that all users should be well informed about the consequences of dealing with unlawful information on platforms, including disabling access, removing non-compliant information, suspension or termination of access or usage rights of the user to their user account and imposing punishment under applicable law. It entails that users are clearly informed, through terms of services and user agreements, about the consequences of engaging with unlawful information on the platform.
- The advisory also indicates measures advocating to combat deepfakes or misinformation. The advisory necessitates identifying synthetically created content across various formats, advising platforms to employ labels, unique identifiers, or metadata to ensure transparency. Furthermore, the advisory mandates the disclosure of software details and tracing the first originator of such synthetically created content.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for IT, specified that
“Advisory is aimed at the Significant platforms, and permission seeking from Meity is only for large platforms and will not apply to startups. Advisory is aimed at untested AI platforms from deploying on the Indian Internet. Process of seeking permission , labelling & consent based disclosure to user about untested platforms is insurance policy to platforms who can otherwise be sued by consumers. Safety & Trust of India's Internet is a shared and common goal for Govt, users and Platforms.”
Conclusion
MeitY's advisory sets the stage for a more regulated Al landscape. The Indian government requires explicit permission for the deployment of under-testing or unreliable Artificial Intelligence models on the Indian Internet. Alongside intermediaries, the advisory also applies to digital platforms that incorporate Al elements. Advisory is aimed at significant platforms and will not apply to startups. This move safeguards users and fosters innovation by promoting responsible AI practices, paving the way for a more secure and inclusive digital environment.
References
- https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/03/04/meity_ai_advisory_1_march.pdf
- https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/govts-ai-advisory-will-not-apply-to-startups-mos-it-rajeev-chandrasekhar/articleshow/108197797.cms?from=mdr
- https://www.meity.gov.in/writereaddata/files/Advisory%2015March%202024.pdf
Introduction
Intricate and winding are the passageways of the modern digital age, a place where the reverberations of truth effortlessly blend, yet hauntingly contrast, with the echoes of falsehood. Within this complex realm, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has illuminated the darkened corners with its powerful spotlight, revealing the festering, insidious network of misinformation and disinformation that snakes through the virtual and physical worlds alike. Gravely identified by the “WEF's Global Risks Report 2024” as the most formidable and immediate threats to our collective well-being, this malignant duo—misinformation and disinformation.
The report published with the solemn tone suitable for the prelude to such a grand international gathering as the Annual Summit in Davos, the report presents a vivid tableau of our shared global landscape—one that is dominated by the treacherous pitfalls of deceits and unverified claims. These perils, if unrecognised and unchecked by societal checks and balances, possess the force to rip apart the intricate tapestry of our liberal institutions, shaking the pillars of democracies and endangering the vulnerable fabric of social cohesion.
Election Mania
As we find ourselves perched on the edge of a future, one where the voices of nearly three billion human beings make their mark on the annals of history—within the varied electoral processes of nations such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. However, the spectre of misinformation can potentially corrode the integrity of the governing entities that will emerge from these democratic processes. The warning issued by the WEF is unambiguous: we are flirting with the possibility of disorder and turmoil, where the unchecked dispersion of fabrications and lies could kindle flames of unrest, manifesting in violent protests, hate-driven crimes, civil unrest, and the scourge of terrorism.
Derived from the collective wisdom of over 1,400 experts in global risk, esteemed policymakers, and industry leaders, the report crafts a sobering depiction of our world's journey. It paints an ominous future that increasingly endows governments with formidable power—to brandish the weapon of censorship, to unilaterally declare what is deemed 'true' and what ought to be obscured or eliminated in the virtual world of sharing information. This trend signals a looming potential for wider and more comprehensive repression, hindering the freedoms traditionally associated with the Internet, journalism, and unhindered access to a panoply of information sources—vital fora for the exchange of ideas and knowledge in a myriad of countries across the globe.
Prominence of AI
When the gaze of the report extends further over a decade-long horizon, the prominence of environmental challenges such as the erosion of biodiversity and alarming shifts in the Earth's life-support systems ascend to the pinnacle of concern. Yet, trailing closely, the digital risks continue to pulsate—perpetuated by the distortions of misinformation, the echoing falsities of disinformation, and the unpredictable repercussions stemming from the utilization and, at times, the malevolent deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). These ethereal digital entities, far from being illusory shades, are the precursors of a disintegrating world order, a stage on which regional powers move to assert and maintain their influence, instituting their own unique standards and norms.
The prophecies set forth by the WEF should not be dismissed as mere academic conjecture; they are instead a trumpet's urgent call to mobilize. With a startling 30 percent of surveyed global experts bracing for the prospect of international calamities within the mere span of the coming two years, and an even more significant portion—nearly two-thirds—envisaging such crises within the forthcoming decade, it is unmistakable that the time to confront and tackle these looming risks is now. The clarion is sounding, and the message is clear: inaction is no longer an available luxury.
Maldives and India Row
To pluck precise examples from the boundless field of misinformation, we might observe the Lakshadweep-Malé incident wherein an ordinary boat accident off the coast of Kerala was grotesquely transformed into a vessel for the far-reaching tendrils of fabricated narratives, erroneously implicating Lakshadweep in the spectacle. Similarly, the tension-laden India-Maldives diplomatic exchange becomes a harrowing testament to how strained international relations may become fertile ground for the rampant spread of misleading content. The suspension of Maldivian deputy ministers following offensive remarks, the immediate tumult that followed on social media, and the explosive proliferation of counterfeit news targeting both nations paint a stark and intricate picture of how intertwined are the threads of politics, the digital platforms of social media, and the virulent propagation of falsehoods.
Yet, these are mere fragments within the extensive and elaborate weave of misinformation that threatens to enmesh our globe. As we venture forth into this dangerous and murky topography, it becomes our collective responsibility to maintain a sense of heightened vigilance, to consistently question and verify the sources and content of the information that assails us from all directions, and to cultivate an enduring culture anchored in critical thinking and discernment. The stakes are colossal—for it is not merely truth itself that we defend, but rather the underlying tenets of our societies and the sanctity of our cherished democratic institutions.
Conclusion
In this fraught era, marked indelibly by uncertainty and perched precariously on the cusp of numerous pivotal electoral ventures, let us refuse the role of passive bystanders to unraveling our collective reality. We must embrace our role as active participants in the relentless pursuit of truth, fortified with the stark awareness that our entwined futures rest precariously on our willingness and ability to distinguish the veritable from the spurious within the perilous lattice of falsehoods of misinformation. We must continually remind ourselves that, in the quest for a stable and just global order, the unerring discernment of fact from fiction becomes not only an act of intellectual integrity but a deed of civic and moral imperative.
References
- https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/election-fuelled-misinformation-is-serious-global-risk-in-2024-says-wef/articleshow/106727033.cms
- https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/100124/misinformation-tops-global-risks-2024.html
- https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/India/fact-check-in-lakshadweep-male-row-kerala-boat-accident-becomes-vessel-for-fake-news/ar-AA1mOJqY
- https://www.boomlive.in/news/india-maldives-muizzu-pm-modi-lakshadweep-fact-check-24085
- https://www.weforum.org/press/2024/01/global-risks-report-2024-press-release/
Introduction
As our reliance on digital communication technologies increases, so do the risks associated with the same. The propagation of false information is a significant concern. According to the World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Risk Report, India ranks the highest for misinformation and disinformation risk. Indian Vice President Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar emphasized the importance of transparency and accountability in the digital information age, addressing Indian Information Service officer trainees at the Vice President's Enclave on 18th June 2024. He has highlighted the issue of widespread misinformation and the need to regulate it. He stated “Information is power, information is too dangerous a power, information is that power which has to be regulated’’.
VC calls for regulation of the Information Landscape
The Vice President of India, Shri Dhankhar, has called on young Indian Information Service officers to act swiftly to neutralize misinformation on social media. He emphasized the importance of protecting individuals and institutions from fake narratives set afloat on social media. The VP called for the officers to act as information warriors, protecting the privacy and reputation of affected individuals or institutions.
The VP also highlighted India's vibrant democracy and the need for trust in the government. He called for the neutralization of motivated narratives set by global media and stressed the importance of not allowing others to calibrate them. He also emphasized the need to promote India's development narrative globally, highlighting its rich cultural heritage and diversity. He has expressed the need to regulate information, saying “Unregulated information & fake news can create a disaster of un-imaginable proportion.”
MeitY Advisory dated 1st March 2024
As regards to the issue of misinformation, the recently-issued advisory by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), specifies that all users should be well informed about the consequences of dealing with unlawful information on online platforms, including disabling access, removing non-compliant information, suspension or termination of access or usage rights of the user to their user account and imposing punishment under applicable law. The advisory entails that users are clearly informed, through terms of services and user agreements, about the consequences of engaging with unlawful information on the platform. Measures to combat deepfakes or misinformation have also been discussed in the advisory. The advisory necessitates identifying synthetically-created content across various formats, and advising platforms to employ labels, unique identifiers, or metadata to ensure transparency. Furthermore, the advisory mandates the disclosure of software details and tracing the first originator of such synthetically created content.
Conclusion
The battle against the growing incidences of misinformation and disinformation will not be easily won: developing a robust regulatory framework to counter online misinformation is essential. Alongside the regulatory framework, the government should encourage digital literacy campaigns, promote prebunking and debunking strategies and collaborate with relevant organisations such as cybersecurity experts, fact-checking entities, researchers, and policy analysts to combat misinformation on the Internet. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar's statement scores the need to regulate information to prevent the spread of fake news or misinformation.
References:
- https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2026304
- https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/03/04/meity_ai_advisory_1_march.pdf
