In a recent revelation, the G20 summit held in September last year faced numerous cyberattack attempts, with the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) successfully repelling the attacks. CEO Rajesh Kumar disclosed that the cybersecurity sector in India thwarted hacking attempts, reaching a peak of 16 lakh Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks per minute during the summit.
The I4C, established by the Home Minister, played a crucial role in safeguarding the G20 portal. Kumar stated that the attacks commenced shortly after the website went live and reached their peak during the summit. Despite the challenges, the I4C, with the collaboration of various Indian authorities, managed to neutralize these cyber threats.
Kumar also expressed concerns about non-national foreign threat actors operating through Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), with indications from China, Cambodia, and Malaysia. However, identifying the exact location remains challenging due to VPN networks masking the hacker’s true location.
Cyber experts explained that non-national threat actors often deploy DDoS attacks to disrupt and sabotage websites, and these attacks may have originated from foreign countries.
The G20 summit, held at Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam International Exhibition-Convention Centre on September 9-10, 2023, marked the eighteenth meeting of the G20.
During the conference, Kumar shared insights into cybercrimes reported in 2023, highlighting that Work from Home (WFH) or Part-time job scams were the most prevalent, followed by illegal lending apps. Additionally, he mentioned that over ₹10,300 crore were siphoned off by cybercriminals since April 1, 2021, and agencies successfully blocked around ₹1,127 crore in the country.
In a positive development, Kumar announced that the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, launched in August 2019, received over 31 lakh cybercrime reports. More than 66,000 FIRs were registered by Law Enforcement Agencies based on these complaints. With assistance from the National Cyber Helpline Number 1930, concerned agencies saved over ₹1,100 crore defrauded from 4.3 lakh victims in three years.
(With inputs from ANI)
