Lok Sabha Question No. 5174 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-04-02
Subject: Cyber Fraud in INCOIS
Ministry: EARTH SCIENCES
Asked by: Shri Sasikanth Senthil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA LOK SABHA

## MINISTRY OF EARTH SCIENCES UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5174

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, 2 ND  APRIL, 2025

## CYBER FRAUD IN INCOIS

## 5174.     SHRI SASIKANTH SENTHIL:

Will the Minister of EARTH SCIENCES be pleased to state:

- (a) whether there are recent incidents of cyber fraud, particularly at the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) and if so, the details thereof along with the financial losses incurred due to these fraudulent activities;
- (b) the steps taken by the Government to strengthen the cybersecurity measures within its agencies  especially  at  INCOIS  to  prevent  further  incidents  of  cyber  fraud  and safeguard sensitive financial data;
- (c) whether the Government has  conducted any internal audits or reviews  to  assess the vulnerabilities in the current cybersecurity infrastructure of INCOIS and other related institutions and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) the details of collaborative efforts undertaken by the Government with cybersecurity experts or agencies to enhance the security of financial transactions and protect public funds from cyber threats and the specific actions  being taken to train employees on identifying and preventing such fraud?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR MINISTRY OF SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY AND EARTH SCIENCES (DR. JITENDRA SINGH)

- (a) Yes  Sir.  There  were  two  incidents  of  cyber  fraud  at  the  Indian  National  Centre  for Ocean  Information  Services  (INCOIS),  Hyderabad.  A  man-in-the-middle  (MITM) attack on 29th June 2024 and on 15 th July, 2024, with the financial losses to the extent of Euro 44,946 and USD 1,98,943.65 respectively.

However, USD 1,98,943.65 was completely recovered after continuous follow-up with all the stake holders and credited back to INCOIS on 07 th October 2024. With respect to the incident of Euro 44,946, efforts were initiated for recovery of the funds in coordination  with  Cyber  Crime  Police,  Bankers  at  India  &  abroad  as  well  as  the Embassy of India at Portugal.

- (b) Measures taken to strengthen the cyber security system at INCOIS are as follows:
-  Securing  access  to  INCOIS  emails/  systems  to  authorized  personnel  using Virtual Private Network (VPN).
-  Strengthening  the  email/system  access  by  two  factor  authentication  (2FA), complex passwords, periodic change of passwords, etc.
-  Filtering of SPAM.
-  Sensitizing staff on cyber security aspects for prevention of cyber frauds.
-  Migrating email services to NIC.
- (c) Yes sir. INCOIS conducted an internal review of the cyber security infrastructure and implemented the above-mentioned measures.
- (d) In order to enhance the security of financial transactions, INCOIS has
-  Established issuance of Usance Letters of Credit (ULC) for foreign orders.
-  Conducting training of staff on cyber security aspects in co-ordination with Indian Computer  Emergency  Response  Team  (CERT-In),  Ministry  of  Electronics  and Information Technology empanelled agencies.

In  addition,  Government  has  taken  following  measures  to  strengthen  India's  cyber security framework and prevent cyber fraud including curbing financial cyber crimes, which inter-alia, includes:

- i. The MHA has established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) as an attached office to provide a framework and eco-system for LEAs to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
- ii. Cyber  Fraud  Mitigation  Centre  (CFMC)  has  been  established  at  I4C  where representatives of major banks, Financial Intermediaries, Payment Aggregators, Telecom Service Providers, IT Intermediaries and representatives of  States/UTs  Law  Enforcement  Agency  working  together  for  immediate action  and  seamless  cooperation  to  tackle  cybercrime.  By  bringing  together financial  institutions,  CFMC  aims  to  detect,  prevent  and  mitigate  the  cyber financial  frauds  by  preventing  the  dissemination  of  fraudulent  funds  across various financial sectors.
- iii. Reserve  Bank  of  India  (RBI)  has  issued  Master  Directions  on  Fraud  Risk Management for the Regulated Entities viz. (i) Commercial Banks (including Regional  Rural  Banks)  and  All  India  Financial  Institutions;  (ii)  Cooperative Banks  (Urban  Cooperative Banks  / State Cooperative Banks  / Central Cooperative  Banks);  and  (iii)  Non-Banking  Finance  Companies  (including Housing  Finance  Companies)  on  15.07.2024  for  strengthening  of  framework on Early Warning Signals (EWS), inter alia, to monitor transactions / unusual activities in the non-KYC compliant and money mule accounts etc., to contain unauthorized / fraudulent transactions.
- iv. RBI  through  'RBI  Kehta  Hai'  has  issued  awareness  material / useful information on aspects such as different types of frauds, modus-operandi and measures  to  be  taken  during  digital  payment  transactions  and  also  through advertising  (through prominent personalities) for creating awareness amongst public,  etc.  RBI  has  also  issued  the  booklet  'BE  (A)WARE'  on  modus operandi of financial frauds in the public domain to educate the public.
- v. National  Cyber  Security  Coordinator  (NCSC)  under  the  National  Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) to ensure coordination amongst different agencies.
- vi. National  Cyber  Coordination  Centre  (NCCC)  implemented  by  the  CERT-In serves  as  the  control  room  to  scan  the  cyberspace  in  the  country  and  detect cyber security threats. NCCC facilitates coordination among different agencies by  sharing  with  them  the  metadata  from  cyberspace  for  taking  actions  to mitigate cybersecurity threats.
- vii. Cyber Swachhta Kendra (CSK) is a citizen-centric service provided by CERTIn,  which  extends  the  vision  of  Swachh  Bharat  to  the  Cyber  Space.  Cyber Swachhta  Kendra  is  the  Botnet  Cleaning  and  Malware  Analysis  Centre  and helps to detect malicious programs and provides free tools to remove the same. It also provides  cyber  security tips and  best practices for citizens  and organisations.
- viii. CERT-In issued Cyber Security Directions in April 2022 under sub-section (6) of  section  70B  of  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  relating  to  information security  practices,  procedure,  prevention,  response  and  reporting  of  cyber incidents for Safe & Trusted Internet.
- ix. CERT-In issued guidelines  on  information  security  practices  for  government entities in June 2023 covering domains such as data security, network security, identity and access management, application security, third-party outsourcing, hardening procedures, security monitoring, incident management and security auditing.
- x. CERT-In  has  issued  an  advisory  to  various  Ministries  in  November  2023 outlining  the measures to be taken for strengthening the cybersecurity by all entities  that  are  processing  the  digital  personal  data  or  information  including sensitive  personal  data  or  information.  CERT-In  issues  alerts  and  advisories regarding  latest  cyber  threats/vulnerabilities  and  counter  measures  to  protect computers, mobile phones, networks and data on an ongoing basis.
- xi. NIC  has  deployed  advanced  security  tools  including  Threat  Intelligence Platform to identify the security issues associated with Government network.

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