In August this year, some unknown persons allegedly hacked into the system of a travel agency company from Pydhonie, causing losses worth Rs 33 lakh. The accused had not only tampered with ticketing rates but also made 173 transactions, including hotel, flight and bus bookings.
Earlier this month, hackers hit an employee working at a cooperative bank in Andheri and siphoned off with Rs 97 lakh, which was then transfered to different bank accounts in Delhi, Rajasthan and Mumbai.
These are not stray hacking incidents. Statistics indicate an eight-fold increase in hacking cases in Mumbai this year as compared to last year. From January till September this year, 24 cases of hacking were registered in Mumbai, of which only three were solved. During the corresponding period from last year, only three cases of hacking were registered, all of which remain undetected.
"In some cases, we have seen that after hacking the system, criminals left a link to an email address, asking authorities to contact them. They also talked about some bitcoin dealings regarding releasing data. In some other cases, hackers also managed to withdraw money from other countries," a cyber crime police officer said.
In simple terms, hacking entails an illegal intrusion into a computer system and/or network. Every act committed towards breaking into a computer and/or network is hacking. Hackers write or use ready-made computer programs to attack the target computer. They possess the desire to destruct. Some hackers do so for personal monetary gains, such as stealing credit card information, transferring money from various bank accounts to their own, followed by withdrawal of the money. Some others may extort money from corporate giants, by threatening to publish stolen information, which may be critical or sensitive in nature.
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