Hyderabad: Companies based in Hyderabad have become targets for overseas hackers. Around 24 cases have been filed in Cyberabad by various companies this year regarding hacking of emails, databases and diversion of funds worth several lakhs to foreign accounts. The hackers targeted companies working with foreign suppliers or businesses that regularly make international fund transfers. In a recent case, a company located at Madhapur lost over Rs 18 lakh which it had transferred to its counterparts in China. During the investigation, police traced most of the hackers’ IP addresses to African countries, due to which the cases remained undetected.
Using information from online forums, regional hackers have also targeted individuals. In one case, a student was arrested for hacking a private firm’s EPABX code and for causing a loss of Rs 60 lakh. While there were 10 cases of hacking last year, the number has doubled within six months this year, police records show. The companies, targeted by hackers, realised that their email accounts were compromised when their deposits were transferred to unknown accounts.
Inspector Md Riyazuddin of Cyberabad Cyber Crime unit said that a firm had clinched a deal with a Chinese company and had placed orders. “After a few days, they got an email containing the bank account details to which the money should be transferred. The officials transferred the money but the material never arrived. On checking, they realised that the money has not reached their business counterparts,” he said.
Police investigations showed that the email containing bank details were sent by hackers with their own account details, the inspector said. The racket had hacked and accessed the email conversations of these two companies. Then, they sent an email by spoofing or duplicating the email addresses of the Chinese company as a follow up of the earlier conversation.
The hackers snuck invisible malwares into the company's systems, and target the email IDs of the CEO, CFO and other senior executives, who deal with international financial transactions. Same modus operandi has been adopted by others hackers as well."When we looked into these cases, most of the hackers are located in Nigeria or other African countries. To track them or arrest them, we would need help of enforcement agencies of those countries," said a senior official from Cyber crimes. According to the police, the victim companies have not taken adequate measures to strengthen their cyber security.
