“If technology is a drug – and it does feel like a drug – then what, precisely, are the side effects?”- Charlie Brooker, Creator of Black Mirror
No matter where we look introduction of one or the other manifestation of Artificial Intelligence is the talk of the town. Our phones have become extended versions of ourselves, like a brain outside our bodies. All our memories, all our data, our contacts, our relationships are balanced on the screens we use frequently. We are so addicted to our phones that the 21st-century generation has developed a new kind of psychological condition called Nomophobia symptoms being anxiety or desperation when separated from your smartphone. A deeper addiction to your phone also leads to cell phone vibration syndrome, where a person feels that their phone is vibrating.
Your online lifestyle through various social media apps is a new form of addiction that is actually being encouraged. The instant gratification one receives from the attention paid to your online avatar, has seeped into our psyches, making us the “Now” generation which doesn’t have the patience or attention span to understand processes or realities. We expect brands to solve our queries in less than one hour, without appreciating the human chain of correspondence related to that theory. Brands are developing technologies that could track the customer all the time to ensure he/she has an immersive brand experience. This generation would rather entrust all its financial details to a phone or app than repeat the details again and again. This rosy picture of the benefits of not being in control of all your data all times is enticing in the least. But what if this same connectivity has a negative impact?
Here are 5 stories, that bust the myth of online privacy:
Indian Debit Card Hack (2016)
In the year 2016, as many as 32 lakh debit cards belonging to various Indian Banks were compromised by an unknown source. The hack had gone unnoticed for months, allowing the hackers to achieve close to 1.3 crore rupees worth 1.3 crores. The Economic Times has listed this incident has one of the worst cyber attacks of 2016. It is kind of scary to imagine you not even really worrying about wrong deductions from your debit card, as you sit secured in your knowledge that your unique debit card is yours to control. Unfortunately, it is not the case. Reports of this incident reveal that ATMs operated by Hitachi Payments were infected with a malicious software, allowing hackers to extract money from user accounts.
Sale of 6,000 Indian Businesses (2017)
In 2017, IT security firm QuickHeal reported that 6000 Indian Businesses were on sale on Dark Internet. QuickHeal also reported that the list of these 6000 organizations included government organizations, internet service providers, banks and enterprises. The unidentified hacker had asked for 15 Bitcoins (approx. INR 42 Lakhs) for information on one company and had even offered a network takedown for these 6000 companies for an indefinite time period. The detailed inspection revealed that the hackers had attacked the Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers (IRINN), which comes under National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). IRINN is the national internet registry agency which is tasked with coordinating IP address allocation, along with managing internet resources across the country. It is said that the hackers claimed to have the ability to manipulate IP address allocation pool, which could trigger a serious outage or Denial of Service attack-like condition.
Bank Hacks of 2017
In June 2017, Banks in India faced yet another kind of threat. Three government-owned banks faced system infiltration. The hackers created fake trade documents that may have been used to raise finance abroad or facilitate dealings in banned items.
The banks in question discovered that their SWIFT systems — the global financial messaging service banks use to move millions of dollars and documents across borders every day — have been compromised to create fake documents. The banks are still unsure about the origin of the attack and the intention of the hackers.
Fake Aadhaar Card Scam (2017)
In 2017, The Hindu and several other newspapers reported on a nationwide Aadhaar Card Scam. The papers reported that the hackers would bypass the biometric norms of the UIDAI with fingerprint copies and tamper with the source code of the UIDAI application client (software used by Aadhaar enrolment agencies) to create a fake application client. They would then bypass the operator authentication process to create fake Aadhaar cards. The hackers would send the client application to unauthorised operators for a sum of ₹5,000 each.
Terms and Conditions May Apply (2013)
Terms and Conditions may apply is a documentary that addresses how corporations and the government utilize the information that users provide when agreeing to browse a website, install an application, or purchase goods online. Made in 2013 by Cullen Hoback, it discusses the language used in user-service agreements on the World Wide Web, and how online service providers collect and use users’ and customers’ information.
