Types of Cyber Crime in India With Examples

With the increasing number of internet users year after year, the number of cybercrimes is also increasing. With the information now being accessible to many people, it is easy for fraudsters to attack users with different cybercrime techniques and gain access to their data.

In this article, we have covered different types of cybercrime and how you can prevent yourself from it.

What is Cyber Crime?

Cybercrime is defined as the illegal use of any communication device to gain access to another person’s personal information to commit an unlawful act. Under cybercrime, a specific user or group of users is targeted to harm them.

Usually, fraudsters attack business groups or high-net-worth individuals to get money in exchange for their personal information.

Types of Cyber Crime in India

Phishing

Phishing is a social engineering attack where scammers or fraudsters send spammy emails or messages to users and gain access to sensitive information from the user’s device through malicious software. Once the software gets installed on the user’s device, hackers can exploit it.

The hackers might not directly exploit the device. Instead, they try to use the user’s login credentials or secret bank information and cause a financial loss to them.

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is a type of hacking where the hackers use a personal touch to gain access to the user’s personal information. The hackers call the victims and use manipulation tricks to defraud users and get their confidential information. Credit card fraud is highly observed in India, where hackers try to mimic the voice of bank employees and ask the users to share their credit card PIN, One Time Password, etc., to protect their bank accounts.

Identity Theft

Identity Theft means the hacker tries to mimic the original user to commit a crime. They can access the user’s credit card and other banking information to make financial transactions.

Sometimes, the hackers create a fake account in the user’s name and start demanding money in the form of donations from the known contacts of the original user.

Ransomware

Ransom is when someone illegally takes a property or someone in control in exchange for financial benefits. Specific data or confidential information of the user is blocked by hackers, which restricts the users from making financial transactions. Hackers usually ask the victim to transfer money directly or through cryptocurrency to gain access to this locked information.

Denial of Service (DoS)

There are millions of service-based websites that provide service to their customers. If the website gets overloaded with traffic or has a function error, it will stall its services. In a Denial of Service (DoS) attack, hackers send spam traffic to the service websites and interrupt their network and services. Sometimes this attack is distributed among multiple computer networks.

Cyberstalking

In Cyberstalking, hackers try to follow an individual over various platforms like social media, websites, emails, etc. and try to threaten their security. In specific scenarios, this may also lead to sextortion, where the hackers seek sexual advances from the victim in exchange for their private photos and videos.

There are many physical and emotional consequences the victim has to face because of cyberbullying.

Malware Attacks

Some applications require app permissions, like getting the contacts on the device, tracking the location information, etc. At times, this is legal if the application seeking approval is authentic. If the application is not listed in the app store of Google or Apple, it feels suspicious to provide access to our private information.

Some suspicious apps try to get the information and contact details of the users without their knowledge which results in bigger scams eventually. The hackers try to inject malicious software into the user’s device, which is known as a malware attack.

Prohibited Content

When the other person shares explicit content such as pornography, sexual abuse content, etc., it is known as prohibited content. Most well-known social platforms, like Instagram, Facebook, etc., are now strictly monitoring the published content. However, hackers/fraudsters still find ways to send such prohibited content over private messages.

Botnets

Botnets are usually hacked networks or computer devices under hackers’ control. These devices are used as primary tools to attack other devices on the same network and gain access to the confidential information of an individual or an organization.

Web Jacking

Web Jacking attack means taking control of the website over a domain by hackers. Usually, hackers compromise the DNS and IP address of the website but do not touch the actual website.

Web Jacking is similar to a phishing attack, where the hacker creates a clone of the original website and steals the user’s data when they enter this website.

Tips to Prevent Cyber Crime

While using the internet or any smart device, you must be aware of the cybercrime types and have a security check on it from time to time. Here are a few things you need to keep in mind to prevent yourself from cybercrime attacks:

• Do not open any spammy links from an unknown source
• Use different passwords across all platforms. Try to use secure passwords.
• Safeguard your data by using a VPN.
• Always use antivirus on the devices you use on the internet.
• Avoid calls and messages that seek your bank account details and passwords.
• Keep updating your software and other applications to fix the bugs in the older version.
• Avoid clicking on any attachments or links in a spammy email or SMS.
• Update the device operating system.

Conclusion

One must be aware of these common cybercrime types and safeguard themselves by following the above tips.