#FactCheck - Virat Kohli's Ganesh Chaturthi Video Falsely Linked to Ram Mandir Inauguration

Introduction

Web applications are essential in various sectors, including online shopping, social networks, banking, and healthcare systems. However, they also pose numerous security threats, including Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), a client-side code injection vulnerability. XSS attacks exploit the trust relationship between users and websites, allowing them to change web content, steal private information, hijack sessions, and gain full control of user accounts without breaking into the core server. This vulnerability is part of the OWASP Top 10 Web Application Security Risks.

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What is Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)?

An XSS attack occurs when an attacker injects client-side scripts into web pages viewed by other users. When users visit the affected pages, their browsers naively execute the inserted scripts. The exploit takes advantage of web applications that allow users to submit content without properly sanitising inputs or encoding outputs. These scripts can cause a wide range of damage, including but not limited to stealing session cookies for session hijacking, redirecting users to malicious sites, logging keystrokes to capture credentials, and altering the DOM to display fake or phishing content.

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How Does XSS Work?

1. Injection: A malicious user submits code through a website input, like a comment or form.
2. Execution: The submitted code runs automatically in the browsers of other users who view the page.
3. Exploitation:The attacker can steal session information, capture credentials, redirect users, or modify the page content.

The fundamental cause behind the XSS vulnerabilities is the application of:

• Accepting trusted input from the users.  
• After users' input, web pages have the strings embedded without any sanitisation.  
• Not abiding by security policies like Content Security Policy (CSP).  

With such vulnerabilities, attackers can generate malicious payloads like:  <script>alert('XSS');</script>  

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This code might seem simple, but its execution provides the attacker with the possibility to do the following:  

• Copy session tokens through hidden HTTP requests.  
• From attacker-controlled domains, load attacker scripts.  
• Change the DOM structure to show fake login forms for phishing.

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Types of XSS Attacks: XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) attacks can occur in three main variations: 

1. Stored XSS: This type of attack occurs when an attacker injects an administered payload into the database or a message board. The script then runs whenever a user visits the affected board.
2. Reflected XSS: In this attack, the danger lies in a parameter of the URL. Its social engineering techniques are attacks, in which it requires tricking people to click on a specially designed link. For example:
3. DOM-Based XSS: This technique injects anything harmful without the need for server-side scripts, in contrast to other approaches. It targets JavaScript client-side scripts such as `document.write` and `innerHTML`. Without carrying out any safety checks, these scripts will alter the page's look (DOM stands for Document Object Model). If the hash is given a malicious string, it is run directly within the browser.

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What Makes XSS a Threat?  

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A Cross-Site Scripting attack is only a primary attack vector, and can lead to significant damage that includes the following: 

• Statement Hijacking. This uses scripts to steal cookies, which are then used to pose as authorized users.  
• Theft of Credentials. Users’ passwords and usernames are wrenched from keystroke trackers.  
• Phishing. Users are prompted with deceitful login forms that are used to capture sensitive details.  
• Website Vandalism. Modified website material lowers the esteem of the brand.  
• Monetary and Legal Consequences. There are compounding effects to GDPR and DPDP Act compliance in case of Data breaches, which incur penalties and fines.  ‍

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Incidents in the Real World  

In 2021, an XSS Stored attack occurred on a famous e-commerce platform eBay, through their product review system. The malicious JavaScript code was set to trigger every time an infected product page was accessed by customers. This caused a lot of problems, including account takeovers, unauthorised purchases, and damage to the company’s reputation. This example further worsens the fact that even reputed platforms can be targeted by XSS attacks.

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How to Prevent XSS?

Addressing XSS vulnerabilities demands attention to detail and coordinated efforts across functions, as illustrated in the steps below:

 Input Validation and Output Encoding:

• Ensure input validation is in place on the client and server.
• Perform output encoding relative to context: HTML: <, >, &.
• JavaScript: Escape quotes and slashes

Content Security Policy (CSP): CSP allows scripts to be executed only from the verified sources, which helps diminish the odds of harmful scripts running on your website. For example, the Header in the code could look to some degree like this: Content-Security-Policy: script-src 'self';

Unsafe APIs should be dodged: Avoid the use of document.write(), innerHTML, and eval(), and make sure to use:

• TextContent for inserting text.
• CreateElement() and other DOM creation methods for structured content.

Secure Cookies: Apply the HttpOnly and Secure cookie flags to block JavaScript access. 

Framework Protections: Use the protective features in frameworks such as:

• React, which escapes data embedded in JSX automatically.
• Angular, which uses context-aware sanitisation.

Periodic Security Assessment:

• Use DAST tools to test the security posture of an application.
• Perform thorough penetration testing and security-oriented code reviews.

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‍Best Practices for Developers: Assume a Secure Development Lifecycle (SDLC) integrating XSS stoppage at each point.

• Educate developers on OWASP secure coding guidelines.
• Automate scanning for vulnerabilities in CI/CD pipelines.

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‍Conclusion:

To reduce the potential danger of XSS, both developers and companies must be diligent in their safety initiatives, ranging from using Content Security Policies (CSP) to verifying user input. Web applications can shield consumers and the company from the subtle but long-lasting threat of Cross-Site Scripting if security controls are implemented during the web application development stage and regular vulnerability scans are conducted.

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References

• https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/xss/
• https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/xss-cross-site-scripting
• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Cross-site_scripting
• https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/security/threats/cross-site-scripting/

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Introduction

The 2025 Delhi Legislative Assembly election is just around the corner, scheduled for February 5, 2025, with all 70 constituencies heading to the polls. The eagerly awaited results will be announced on February 8, bringing excitement as the people of Delhi prepare to see their chosen leader take the helm as Chief Minister. As the election season unfolds, social media becomes a buzzing hub of activity, with information spreading rapidly across platforms. However, this period also sees a surge in online mis/disinformation, making elections a hotspot for misleading content. It is crucial for citizens to exercise caution and remain vigilant against false or deceptive online posts, videos, or content. Empowering voters to distinguish facts from fiction and recognize the warning signs of misinformation is essential to ensure informed decision-making. By staying alert and well-informed, we can collectively safeguard the integrity of the democratic process.

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Risks of Mis/Disinformation

According to the 2024 survey report titled ‘Truth Be Told’ by ‘The 23 Watts’, 90% of Delhi’s youth (Gen Z) report witnessing a spike in fake news during elections, and 91% believe it influences voting patterns. Furthermore, the research highlights that 14% of Delhi’s youth tend to share sensational news without fact-checking, relying solely on conjecture.

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Recent Measures by ECI

Recently the Election Commission of India (EC) has issued a fresh advisory to political parties to ensure responsible use of AI-generated content in their campaigns. The EC has issued guidelines to curb the potential use of "deepfakes" and AI-generated distorted content by political parties and their representatives to disturb the level playing field. EC has mandated the labelling of all AI-generated content used in election campaigns to enhance transparency, combat misinformation, ensuring a fair electoral process in the face of rapidly advancing AI technologies.

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Best Practices to Avoid Electoral Mis/Disinformation 

• Seek Information from Official Sources: Voters should rely on authenticated sources for information. These include reading official manifestos, following verified advisory notifications from the Election Commission, and avoiding unverified claims or rumours.
• Consume News Responsibly: Voters must familiarize themselves with dependable news channels and make use of reputable fact-checking organizations that uphold the integrity of news content. It is crucial to refrain from randomly sharing or forwarding any news post, video, or message without verifying its authenticity. Consume responsibly, fact-check thoroughly, and share cautiously.
• Role of Fact-Checking: Cross-checking and verifying information from credible sources are indispensable practices. Reliable and trustworthy fact-checking tools are vital for assessing the authenticity of information in the digital space. Voters are encouraged to use these tools to validate information from authenticated sources and adopt a habit of verification on their own. This approach fosters a culture of critical thinking, empowering citizens to counter deceptive deepfakes and malicious misinformation effectively. It also helps create a more informed and resilient electorate.
• Be Aware of Electoral Deepfakes: In the era of artificial intelligence, synthetic media presents significant challenges. Just as videos can be manipulated, voices can also be cloned. It is essential to remain vigilant against the misuse of deepfake audio and video content by malicious actors. Recognize the warning signs, such as inconsistencies or unnatural details, and stay alert to misleading multimedia content. Proactively question and verify such material to avoid falling prey to deception.

References

1. https://www.financialexpress.com/business/brandwagon-90-ofnbsp-delhi-youth-witness-spike-in-fake-news-during-elections-91-believe-it-influences-voting-patterns-revealed-the-23-watts-report-3483166/
2. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/election-commission-urges-parties-to-disclose-ai-generated-campaign-content-in-interest-of-transparency/articleshow/117306865.cms
3. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/election-commission-issues-advisory-on-use-of-ai-in-poll-campaigning/article69103888.ece
4. https://indiaai.gov.in/article/election-commission-of-india-embraces-ai-ethics-in-campaigning-advisory-on-labelling-ai-generated-content

Introduction

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Over the last few years, several public data breaches in Venezuela have revealed a lack of cohesion and progress in its data privacy system and left many people susceptible to fraud, identity theft and long-term harm via the internet. It is clear from these data breaches that when organizations fail to adequately protect their data, both through cybersecurity failures and weak legal protections, they can lead to problems throughout an entire system through which all individuals in the system could potentially suffer.

Among the more notable breaches are the Movistar Venezuela data breach from 2025 and the Cashea App data leak from earlier this year. Each of these examples demonstrates to some extent how the absence of an adequate privacy regulatory scheme can worsen the results of a data breach.

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The Movistar Breach: A Regulatory Warning (2025)

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Venezuelan digital rights group VE Sin Filtro published a report late in April 2025, which found a database revealed to have been opened onto the internet containing personal information belonging to over 3.2 million Movistar customers. The initial breach contained personal, and confidential, data of Venezuelan citizens such as national identification numbers, full names, city of residence, and phone numbers which could have been exploited to commit identity theft, SIM-swap fraud, and targeted scams.

One significant issue with this situation was that Movistar failed to disclose the breach publicly or contact impacted customers at the time of the disclosure. As a result, there appears to be a significant gap in Sanctions / Other Means of Enforcing Security Countermeasures Laws. Since there are numerous countries that enforce GDPR-style regulations and as such, this matter should lead to a complete investigation and possible fines against those responsible but in Venezuela there is still a lack of accountability.

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Cashea App Leak: A 2026 Data Shock

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A second alleged data breach came to light in February of 2026. It involved a Venezuelan buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) fintech called Cashea App, which is typically heavily utilized domestically. Reports have circulated that threat actors have been offering a database, believed to hold more than 79 million transaction records. This is more than double the size and sensitivity of the data involved in the Movistar Breach.

According to reports, the leaked data included:

1. Bank account details and payment methods
2. Merchant profiles and internal business identifiers
3. Detailed transaction histories with names, national ID numbers, timestamps, and installment data

This level of exposure goes far beyond basic identifiers. Financial transaction histories combined with personal identifiers enable sophisticated fraud, targeted social engineering, and long-term misuse of financial identities. As with the Movistar breach, no official acknowledgment or notification was issued by Cashea at the time of reporting, again underscoring Venezuela’s weak enforcement environment.

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Why These Breaches Matter: The Legal Dimension

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The incidents show us that there is a bigger problem with the way Venezuela has set up its framework for protecting data. For instance, the Venezuelan Constitution recognises the principles of data protection and privacy; however, these rights only exist in a theoretical manner; they lack implementing legislation, procedural clarity, and institutional enforcement.

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Constitutional Basis of Data Protection

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The Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) stated the core principles for protecting data are found in the Venezuelan Constitution. After the TSJ issued its 2011 ruling, Article 28 of the Venezuelan Constitution gives individuals the right to know what data the state has about them, how the state uses that data, and to correct or delete any harmful data. Article 60 of the Venezuelan Constitution protects individuals' privacy and restricts excessive data collection by the state.

The Constitutional Chamber also put into place additional guiding principles for how to protect personal data, including:

1. The data subject must give prior informed and revocable consent.
2. The purpose for which the data is collected must be specified and only the minimum amount of information necessary can be collected.
3. The data collected must be accurate and of good quality.
4. There are confidentiality obligations for third parties regarding the use of the data.
5. It is the government's responsibility to put into place procedures and mechanisms to monitor compliance with the data protection laws.
6. There are civil, criminal and administrative liabilities for individuals and legal entities that violate the data protection laws.

But, in a civil law country, when courts make rulings, they usually are persuasive only as opposed to being legally binding, and even constitutional rulings cannot be implemented until enabling legislation is passed.

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Absence of a Comprehensive Data Protection Law

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In contrast to the European Union's GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the United States' sectoral approach, and emerging Latin American data protection systems such as the ones in Brazil, Chile and Colombia, Venezuela has no independent data protection law. This lack of law leads to numerous types of uncertainty in the realm of data protection laws:

1. No defined data controller or processor obligations
2. No standardized lawful bases for processing
3. No clear breach notification timelines
4. No independent data protection authority
5. No procedural pathway for individuals to seek redress

As a result, data protection in Venezuela is not treated as an independent legal discipline but instead becomes derivative, arising incidentally within constitutional litigation or sector-specific disputes.

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Regulatory Fragmentation and Institutional Weakness

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Due to the TSJ decisions made in 2011, there has been a lack of regulatory action taken in a systematic fashion and instead most actions have been done on a case by case basis as valid incidents arise. The National Cybersecurity Council was established in 2024; however, its function is to support the establishment of cybersecurity infrastructure and has no defined powers regarding the enforcement of privacy.

This creates a fragmented institutional landscape where:

1. Authorities lack clear jurisdiction over privacy violations
2. Companies face minimal compliance guidance
3. Individuals struggle to understand or enforce their rights

The Movistar and Cashea incidents highlight how this fragmentation translates into practical impunity following major data exposures.

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What’s Next? A Legal Opportunity for Reform

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The repercussions of insufficient safeguards for data protection extend past the damage incurred to a person's privacy:

1. Loss of trust in both financial and digital services
2. Heightened likelihood of financial fraud and crime
3. Lack of willingness from foreign companies to conduct business with Venezuela’s platforms.
4. Long-term negative impact on the reputation of domestic companies.
5. Possible inability to access cross-border transfer of data due to other jurisdictions’ decisions to restrict transfers into jurisdictions without cutting-edge enforcement of protections for privacy.

In a digital economy that increasingly requires robust data protection to function successfully, a lack of action to create strong protections will cause a significant economic impact.

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Conclusion

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Major data breaches such as the ones at Movistar in 2025 and Cashea App in 2026 show that constitutional privacy rights alone are insufficient without enforceable legal framework. Privacy laws must move from being just a principle to being a law that has institutions, procedures, and accountability to make sure the privacy of the users is protected.

Now with the global digital economy being so interconnected, not having regulations creates openings for vulnerabilities for people. If Venezuela hopes to protect their citizens, create an innovation-friendly environment, and compete in the global market, they must implement comprehensive data privacy reforms as soon as possible.

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REFERENCES 

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1. https://iapp.org/news/a/venezuela-data-breach-highlights-scattered-privacy-regulation
2. https://www.apolocybersecurity.com/en/blog-posts/ciberataque-a-movistar-que-ha-pasado-a-quien-afecta-y-como-proteger-tus-datos
3. https://darknetsearch.com/knowledge/news/en/cashea-app-data-leak-79m-records-exposed-in-venezuela/
4. https://www.binance.com/en-IN/square/post/294369884695410

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