December 14, 2022
Sukhendu Sekhar Ray raised during Zero Hour the demand for capacity enhancement to deal with cyberattacks
Sir, around five million people globally have had their data stolen and sold on the bot market till date. Out of which, six lakhs are from India, making it the worst affected country according to one of the world’s largest VPN service providers Nord VPN. Sir, Nord VPN has its offices in Lithuania, UK, Panama and Netherland. The online marketing mechanism, known as bot market, is used by hackers to sell stolen data from victims’ devices with bot malware. The study by Nord VPN of Lithuania’s Nord Security said the stolen data included users’ logins, cookies, digital fingerprints, screenshots and other information, with an average price for the digital identity of a person pegged at Rs. 490, which comes to US $ 5.95. Nord VPN tracked data for the past four years, ever since bot markets were launched in 2018. Last month, multiple servers of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), a Government hospital, which caters to Ministers, politicians, and the general public, were infected. It is not known as to whether the Government has enquired about the veracity of this report. I would, therefore, urge upon the Government to look into the matter and publish a White Paper on this.
