DailyPost 2955
DIGITAL ARREST – CAN WE STEM THE DIGITAL ROT
Taking the name of a government agency surreptitiously and making some ill-gotten money or playing the government middlemen and disappearing is quite a known form of crime. The coming of the digital age ushered in a new set of crimes generically called cyber crime. Cyber crime has gone through many generations and currently the reigning czar globally is ransomware. This is a purely technical hack. There is a genre of cyber crime pertaining to social engineering. Social engineering with the hacking of mind is the mainstay, digital arrest can be called as one such one.
Cyber criminals are not only tech savvy, they understand human psychology very well, and are ready to put in any amount of time to understand and replicate physical systems so that there is not even an iota of doubt in the minds of the victims. They have the endurance and perseverance and can go to any extent to perfect it and keep refining it as per the requirement. Digital arrest seems to be a perfect example of it. Today Digital Arrests have become rampant and even with good enough media coverage it is going on unabated. You may even go to the extent of calling it Digital Hypnotism. Rs. 120 crores has already been lost to this crime, with many cases going unreported.
It has reached a level that the PM has referred to it with great concern in one of his public expositions. How do I stop this crime or bring it under control? The management type approach is not going to work by prescribing steps etc and expect the victim to do the rest. This has not happened even with the most experienced and tech savvy victims. An all out media blitzkrieg would make it known to one and all that there is nothing called Digital Arrest under the Indian law, no agency conducts through video calls and no money transfers are made in criminal cases and certainly not in the manner being asked for. Let it happen in all the languages. But is it enough?
Certainly not, the onus still remains on the victim. Broadly he has fend for himself. Firstly, all phone numbers, skype ids etc have been acted upon and need to be translated into a dynamic database and made public. Secondly, the names of cyber criminals and gangs involved in digital arrest should also be made public in a similar manner. Thirdly, real time exchange of data between agencies leading to actionable intelligence and action be taken upon it immediately and made public. Fourthly, the data exchange and action between telcos in a dynamic manner with crowd sourcing of fraudulent numbers would be of immense help. Fifthly, the broken KYC system has to be set right. And sixthly, a business logic should be incorporated in core banking software to stop transfer of money to mule accounts. The victim should get his money back should be our purpose.
DIGITAL ARREST IS A MULTI HEADED HYDRA WHICH CAN BE TACKLED ONLY IN A MULTIPRONGED MANNER THROUGH AWARENESS, TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS, BANKING INTERVENTIONS, TELCOS COLLABORATION WITH STRINGENT LEGAL ACTION IN A SYNTHESISED MANNER.
Sanjay Sahay
Have a nice evening.