Most cyber crimes in India exploit individuals through job, loan, or investment scams with social engineering and fake apps. Digital arrest can also be called a variant of it.The enterprises are in no way impacted. A much more sinister cyber crime emanates out of insider threat and can broadly be called insider crimes. The recent case of four techies being booked for Rs.82 crore data theft at a Pune IT firm takes cyber crimes to a different level in this country. What is so different and intriguing about this case?
At the present stage of investigation, it is now clear that the accused employees, including a woman, had stolen crucial source codes and proprietary software solutions from their employer. As per the Police the said stolen property formed the foundation of the company’s competitive advantage. The employees job is to use the data for the purposes specifically mandated while safeguarding it, instead the employees reportedly used it to float their own IT venture. What did they do with the data stolen?
“By using the stolen codes and solutions, the accused went on to develop more than 100 websites and generated revenue illegally,” the police said in the initial statement. By doing this they diverted clients and undercut the firm’s market share with products created from stolen material. As per the company the accused allegedly inflicted financial losses amounting to Rs.82 crore. What did the company management say? They argued that the impact of the theft has been devastating. A case has been registered under the relevant sections of BNS and the Information Technology Act.
What is to be emphasised here is that the charges reflect both the betrayal of trust and unlawful exploitation of digital intellectual property. For sure this is not the first case of this kind. Might be the first source code theft case dates back to 2002, known as the Geometric Software Case. There has been another case of this kind at Ahmedabad in 2021 and 2023 in Noida. It involved employees of Solulever India Private Limited, who allegedly sold the source code to a Dubai based entity. This case is an advanced, industrial grade insider attack, which is rare in frequency but far more damaging to companies and the tech sector.
WITH TECH TRUST SHATTERED, IT IS THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA OF CYBER CRIMES.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.