Microsoft's Digital Crime Unit busy catching cyber thugs in India

In a significant operation earlier this month the cyber cell of Delhi Police arrested 24 people who posed as Microsoft tech support staff and duped several US citizensThis could not have been possible without the the realtime monitoring of cyber crimes by Microsofts Digital Crime Unit DCU in Redmond that is using Cloud Big Data Machine Learning ML and Business Intelligence BI to improve the security of its products and services protect vulnerable populations fight malware and reduce digital risksThe realtime data analytics and sharing of key inputs with relevant law enforcement agencies helped bust 10 companies that were illegally running call centres at various places in Delhi that targeted Microsoft Windows usersIt was realtime monitoring that helped us crack the Delhi gang behind the largescale tech support fraud The whole operation has been encouraging in our fight against cyber crimes Shilpa Bratt Director Shared Services of Digital Crimes Unit told IANSWe worked closely with our DCU staff in India and Singapore to nail the culprits I believe there are more such cyber criminals out there and we will up the ante against their sinister plans Bratt addedThe cyber criminals impersonated as Microsoft tech support staff after they managed to fraudulently pop up messages on users screens that their systems had been affected by malwareIn order to fix the systems they charged any sum between 100 and 500 from the victimsAccording to the Delhi police incriminating evidence in the form of cheques from customers in the name of Microsoft Tech support call recordings virtual dialers Microsoft Tech support training material call log transcripts detailing the conversation with victims of fraud payment gateway records and servers were seizedAccording to a Microsoft survey released this month 68 per cent users in India experienced tech support scams in the past year and some of them 14 per cent even lost moneyThe problem is not limited to India alone Tech support scams are a problem worldwide with three out of five people globally having experienced one in the past year and one in five losing money to fraudsters according to the Tech Support Scam Survey 2018 released by DCUIn 2014 the DCU filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in the central district of California against some companies and related entities in India for unfair and deceptive business practices and trademark infringementAccording to the lawsuit 33 million Americans fall victim to technical support scams annually losing 15 billionThe scammers claim to find nonexistent computer viruses and infections and then con people out of their hardearned money for bogus tech support in addition to stealing personal and financial information or even installing new malicious softwareAt DCU we are constantly monitoring such scammers The fight against them will only intensify in days to come Bratt notedIn the last two days informed Bratt over 2 billion connected devices were affected with active threats globally and India was at the second spot after Vietnam in the top affected countriesThe data was generated by Microsofts realtime Threat MonitorThe DCU with 22 employees at its Redmond headquarters and 60 overall at 30 offices globally including in India is working roundtheclock to intercept analyse and mitigate threats thus creating a roadmap for various industry stakeholders globally to plan relevant actionsIn total a team of 3500 professionals at Microsoft is looking at security built into the companys products and services using frameworks such as the security development lifecycle and operational security assuranceMicrosofts Cybersecurity Engagement Centre in New Delhi is already empowering organisations with information and techniques to secure critical information infrastructure and help reduce malware and digital riskMicrosoft that invests more than a billion dollars a year in security research innovation and development reached out to 126 organisations in India last yearOur big worry is attacks from nationstate actors as law enforcement is challenged by borders The crossborder nature of cyber crime has created safe havens for bad actors We need a stronger global security law to deal with such situations which are increasing by the day Bratt emphasisedCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever