National cybersecurity member victim of Rs 19-lakh online con

A Member in-charge of cyber security of a prestigious national security body was in for a rude shock when he found he was defrauded of Rs 19 lakh electronically in an apparent hacker attack.

In a well planned crime, police said the hackers had even blocked the SIM card of 65-year-old Sanjay Govind Dhande, cyber security Member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), so that he does not receive alerts from the bank when his account was being fraudulently operated.

Dhande, a former IIT-Kanpur Director and now settled in Pune, has filed a complaint with the local police after a total amount of Rs 19,01,073 was siphoned off from his ICICI bank account between September 6 and 9.

The Pune police's cyber cell has slapped section 467 (forgery of valuable security), 420 (cheating) and various sections of IPC and Information Technology Act in the case.

"I filed a complaint with the police on September 10 and later, after investigation, they filed an FIR. I was not at all knowing that this fraud was being carried out on me and only after the bank, after witnessing some unusual movement in my account, called us on our alternate number and we were informed," Dhande told PTI today.

The senior advisor to the government panel said that banks and mobilephone companies need to deploy "more check and balances" with regard to operation of online transactions and internet banking.

erson had hacked the server of the Aundh road branch of ICICI bank" and the amount was siphoned off.

The FIR stated that the hacker made purchases from the technocrat's account and that the unknown hacker had also locked the Vodafone SIM of Dhande.

Dhande had been appointed as member of the prestigious National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) in April this year to provide impetus especially in areas related to cyber security.

Former Foreign Secretary Shyam Sharan is the Chairman of NSAB at present and the multi-disciplinary body has experts from other sectors like science and technology, economics, defence, internal security and education.

Dhande has also been associated with the TRAI and the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology earlier in his career.

The reputed educationist is a Padma Shri awardee and has 96 research publications and three books to his credit on a host of subjects on computers and technology.

In a similar case of this kind, the Delhi police had recently arrested two Nigerians after they stumbled upon a new modus operandi of e-banking fraudsters.

The fraudsters first first found to have hacked the internet banking account of the target. Then they would get his mobile number blocked to prevent the customer from receiving SMS alerts from the bank about illegal transactions made by them.