Cyber Jagrukta Diwas: Govt warns SMEs of festive season cyber fraud
With 74% of SMEs hit by cyber incidents last year, experts urge small businesses to boost cyber hygiene during festive sales
As the festive season brings a surge in sales for small businesses, cyber experts have cautioned that it also creates fertile ground for fraudsters. According to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the Data Security Council of India (DSCI), nearly 74 per cent of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) faced at least one cyber incident in the past year.
With teams stretched and order volumes rising, scammers are known to exploit the festive rush through tactics such as fake payment receipts, phishing links, forged delivery messages and urgent order scams. Fraudsters often impersonate buyers, suppliers or even large companies to trick businesses into shipping goods without payment, updating bank details to fraudulent accounts, or granting access to sensitive systems.
Officials have urged businesses to remain vigilant and adopt basic cyber hygiene. They emphasised the importance of verifying payments before dispatching goods, cross-checking changes in bank details with trusted contacts, training employees to identify suspicious links or QR codes, and using multi-factor authentication to safeguard critical systems. Setting up a simple system for staff to log and report suspicious activity is also recommended.
Experts warn that even a brief oversight, such as clicking on a malicious link or rushing through a payment, can cause significant financial and reputational damage. For SMEs, embedding cyber awareness into daily operations is now seen as vital for protecting customers, revenue and trust.
Authorities have advised that any suspected cases of cyber fraud should be reported immediately to local police or through the Cyber Crime Helpline at 1930, as well as via the national portal cybercrime.gov.in.
FedEx has expressed support for cyber awareness campaigns that help small businesses build resilience and operate more securely in an increasingly digital economy.
