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Cyber Security

Financial Scams in India and how technology & awareness can save you

The rapid advancement of technology has transformed our lives drastically, bringing with it a range of conveniences and opportunities. However, this rapid advancement has paved the way for many financial scams, especially in India. As technology continues to evolve, the methods deployed by scammers have become increasingly sophisticated as well.  Indian scammers are not scamming people in India but also oversees. Many fake call centers are being run from India in name of support services.

Common Financial Scams in India.

• Phishing Scams: Phishing scams are among India’s most common financial scams. It is a fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive information, such as passwords or credit card details, by pretending to be trustworthy. Fraudsters use emails, SMS, or social media messages that appear to come from legitimate sources. These messages often contain links to fake websites designed to steal sensitive data.

• Ponzi Schemes: A Ponzi scheme is a type of investment fraud that promises high returns to the investors that come from the contributions of newer investors, creating a cycle. Off late people have been looted of millions in name of promising double triple returns from crypto or share market.

 

 

• Loan Scams: With the increase in demand for personal loans, scammers offer attractive loans online to lure victims. These are fraudulent schemes that trick individuals into providing personal information or paying fees under the guise of obtaining a loan.

• Online Shopping Scams: In recent years, online shopping has become increasingly popular, and fraudsters have started exploiting this by creating fake websites or listings to trick consumers into purchasing non-existent products or services.

• Digital Arrest Scams: Scammers posing as digital law enforcement send fake arrest warrants and notices to pressure victims into interrogation, ultimately deceiving them into transferring substantial amounts of money.

WhatsApp video scams: These are a type of fraud where users are tricked into sharing personal or financial information through video calls. Sometimes, the caller would be  girl with no cloths and they as soon as you pick the video call they will record you with the girls and then black mail you. At times they will impersonate someone else using AI and ask for money.

How Technology Helps

• Two-Factor Authentication(2FA): 2FA is a special feature that adds an extra layer of security. It requires the users to provide two forms of verification, such as a password or a one-time password (OTP) sent to their mobile phone, making unauthorized access very difficult. Never share your OTP with anyone.

• Fraud Detection: Financial institutions and banks are increasingly utilizing algorithms to analyze transaction patterns; this can help flag unusual behaviors and allow banks to intervene to prevent potential fraud. Never buy from a website that doesn’t have SSL (https) secure connection.

• Phishing Detection Tools: Emails and web browsers often come equipped with tools to detect and warn users about potential phishing attempts. These tools analyze links and websites for signs of fraud. Do have a good antivirus installed on mobile and your computer.

• Be alert and don’t be greedy: As they say, there is no free launch in this world. Hence, don’t pay your hard earned money to anyone you hardly know, even if they have given double returns to someone you know. Always work with Apps or organizations that are approved by RBI, SEBI or relevant authorities. Banks and Financial institutions can send real-time alerts and notifications to customers about suspicious transactions or account activity. Many organizations have also developed apps that allow users to report suspected scams easily. Always pay heed to messages you receive. Try not to pick WhatsApp video calls from unknown numbers. You can use WhatsApp setting to silent calls from unknown numbers.

• Report to authorities: Always report any incident immediately  to Banks and cyber authorities. You can do it online as well. 

As financial scams continue to evolve, leveraging technology is crucial in protecting oneself from becoming a victim. By understanding the types of scams, utilizing technological tools, and adopting vigilant practices, individuals can significantly reduce their risk and safeguard their financial well-being. Awareness and education are key in the fight against financial fraud, making it essential for everyone to stay informed and proactive.

Command Zero Emerges with $21 Million Funding to Transform Cyber Investigations

Command Zero Emerges with $21 Million Funding to Transform Cyber Investigations

Command Zero, the industry’s first autonomous and user-led cyber investigation platform, has emerged from stealth mode today, securing $21 million in seed funding. This significant investment round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with contributions from Insight Partners and over 60 prominent figures and executives within the cybersecurity sector. Command Zero aims to address one of the most pressing challenges in security operations: the bottleneck caused by manual investigations.

Command Zero Emerges with $21 Million Funding to Transform Cyber Investigations

Image Source: cmdzero.io

Despite substantial investments in cybersecurity, adversaries often outpace organizations in adopting innovative strategies. As a result, defenders find themselves struggling with the basics in complex enterprise environments. While automation has improved detection and triage capabilities, the necessity for tedious manual investigations of escalated cases remains a significant hurdle. This task, typically handled by tier-2 and tier-3 analysts, is becoming increasingly unmanageable, often leading to resource exhaustion or the need to hire third-party remediation firms.

Command Zero seeks to transform this process by integrating encoded expert knowledge, automation, and advanced Language Learning Models (LLMs). The platform combines expert investigative questions with autonomous and user-led methods on a federated data model. This enables analysts to ask technology-independent questions across all universal data sources in modern enterprises. The result is a faster, more accurate, and consistent investigation process.

Harnessing Human Intelligence and Machine Efficiency

The true innovation of Command Zero lies in its ability to augment human investigators with machine efficiency. While human intelligence and creativity are irreplaceable in cyber investigations, machines excel at handling repetitive tasks and processing vast amounts of data quickly. Command Zero leverages these strengths by using automation and LLMs to support human investigators.

During an investigation, each question and response is analyzed in the context of the broader investigation and the specific organization. This approach removes much of the laborious work from security operations teams, allowing analysts to better interpret data responses. Moreover, this system guides users on which questions to ask, how to interpret answers, and how to build comprehensive narratives of incidents. The platform also generates timelines and detailed reports, saving valuable time for analysts.

Founded by a seasoned leadership team with extensive experience in security operations and incident response, Command Zero offers a consistent, efficient, and scalable path for investigations and threat hunting. The co-founders, Dov Yoran, Dean De Beer, and Alfred Huger, have led seven successful cybersecurity acquisitions, including exits to major companies like Symantec, McAfee, Sourcefire, Cisco, and IBM.

“Running escalations to ground truth has always been the biggest challenge in cyber,” said Dov Yoran, co-founder and CEO. “Command Zero removes technology expertise barriers, dramatically reduces repetitive manual work, and speeds up investigations. Improving institutional knowledge, automation, and consistent outcomes are transforming how organizations run threat hunting and investigations at scale.”

About Command Zero

Command Zero is headquartered in Austin, TX, with additional presence in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The company is composed of accomplished cyber experts focused on revolutionizing cyber investigations. With its innovative platform, Command Zero aims to enable all users, regardless of their technical expertise, to perform at the highest level in conducting consistent, repeatable, and auditable investigations with automated reporting.

darktrace

Darktrace- AI based Cyber Security Platform for advanced enterprise network protection

Artificial intelligence is the future, each and every sector is using it. But one common thing about technology evolution that it comes with infrastructure complexity. The digital infrastructure is getting critical and complex. However, to protect such critical data system and advanced infrastructure, needed the one step ahead AI-based cybersecurity. Cyber AI is much advanced that can learn the technology by itself and can generate the needed security. Just like our immune system. Darktrace was the first firm that enabled such AI-based cybersecurity. Top mathematicians from the University of Cambridge established the firm in 2013. Today, it is much easier to perform probability-based calculations to secure the digital system with Darktrace.

About Darktrace

It is headquartered in San Francisco and
Cambridge. As well, having about 44 offices all across the continents. The firm
is a pioneer to use AI for cybersecurity. So, cyber defense challenges can be
solved in an effective way. It launched the autonomous response technology for
the first time. Thus, strengthen the network system of organizations that take
action against cyber threats at an early stage. Darktrace is based on the
future perspective to secure the IT data in the next generation. This realistic
idea helped to acquired top investors. Summit Partners, KKR, Samsung Ventures,
Hoxton, TenEleven, Invoke Capital, and several other top ventures have invested
in Darktrace.

How does it work?

Darktrace made use of AI to overcome the
challenges in cybersecurity. In fact, it results in a fundamental shift in the
capability of securing the critical data system.

No doubt, the non-AI security platform
offers the best protection against cyber attacks. But these cyber attacks are
increasing day by day. As well, the methods, techniques, and the way of
cyberbullying is also changing. The simple cybersecurity platform needs human
assistance to advanced the program. However, Cyber AI is self-learning
technology.  Thus, enabling the more
advanced protection against pre-defined threats.

Exploration of the business

In 2013, the top mathematicians set up
Darktrace and acquired investment from the leading enterprise. As well, the
team of cybersecurity experts experienced in the government intelligence team
contributed to enabling AI-based security. It was the time when cyber threats
were rising. All the experts of Darktrace used their experience and the
emerging technology and transform the cyber defense platform. Soon, the
technology proved it’s the power to identify many types of cyber threats at the
initial stages. Like insider attacks, cloud-based threats, etc.

Just after three years of its foundation, it launched the autonomous response technology for the first time in the world. This technology strengthens the immune system of enterprises to take action against cyber threats at an early stage. During one of the dangerous wannacry ransomware attacks hit several organizations, Darktrace protected its customer’s network. After that, many firms trusted Darktrace for their network security.

Poppy Gustafsson- Darktrace’s CEO

She is presently serving as the CEO of
the firm. Prior to that, she served as COO and CFO at Darktrace. Under her
policies, the firm successfully reached a 1.65 billion dollars valuation in
just five years. As per The Financial Times, Darktrace becomes Europe’s 9th
‘Fastest Growing European Company. As well, Poppy’s leadership marked the
Darktrace name as Fastest Growing Super Scale-up’(Tech Tour).

Early Career and Education

She is a Chartered accountant by
profession. Before joining Darktrace, she worked in the technology and venture
capital sector as a financial controller. Also, Poppy worked as a Fund
Accountant at Amadeus Capital Partners.

Awards and recognitions

Poppy Gustafsson is the recipient of
Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Awards 2019. As well, she set her name on
Management Today’s list, ’30 Women, under 35′ in 2018.

Later success of the Darktrace

Recently in 2017, Darktrace started a
new unit, solely dedicated to fighting against cyber threats in industrial as
well as SCADA network. As well, it continues the excellence and focused on
building a strong customer base that preferred Darktrace AI. It is working
great to secure the national infrastructure with AI-enabled cybersecurity.

To automate the investigation process
Darktrace launched a Cyber AI analyst. It also performs argument security
analysis. The firm intelligently uses advanced machine learning to the
cybersecurity software application. As a result, become a dominant firm that
has no significant competitor.