Snehal Dahiphale, Author at

Ai Cyberthreats using : Deepfake technology

Posted on March 2, 2026April 9, 2026 by Snehal Dahiphale

Ai Cyberthreats using : Deepfake technology

Ai Cyberthreats using : Deepfake technology
1. What is Deepfake Ai?
Deepfake ai is fake media (images, videos, audios) created using generative adversarial Networks (GAN) Ai models. These models can create realistic person’s face,voice,expressions.Cyber offenders often misuse them.

Statistics:
Deepfake frauds have increased by over 600% in 2024. Synthetic identity fraud is among the fastest growing financial crime category. Deepfake has caused fraud losses of 200 million dollars. Some single corporates have reported a loss of 25 million dollars. Many business report upto 50% damage and still exposure to deepfake attack.
A women in India lost 33 lakhs after watching deepfake video of Nirmal Sitaram endorsing fake trading platform.
2. Types of deepfake Ai Threats
A: Deep phishing/vishing attacks
– Hackers can clone company manager’s or CEO’s voice and conduct vishing attacks. They can conduct unauthorized bank transfers.
B- political manipulation:
– videos can be used to spread false information, interfere with political agendas or spread false information on social media.
C: Identity theft:
– Cyber Offenders can create fake videos and use for KYC related frauds. Fake KYC videos can be used to open synthetic bank accounts.
– Fake images and videos can be used to bypass facial recognition systems.
D: Cyber extortion
– Fake videos of victims in compromising positions are created. Offenders balckmail victims for money and reputation damage. Many celebrities, women are victims of this.
3. Industries at risk:
– e-commerce
– Banking and financial institutes
– Governments
– corporate enterprises
– Media and entertainment
4. Technical angle of how attack works?
– Victim’s data is collected using social media and profiling.
– Ai models are trained using collected data.
– attacks are conducted using social media, Im apps such as whats app, telegram.

5. How to identify deepfake content?
– unusual shadows or lightining around face
– Distortion in face or image
– Robotics unnatural voice tone
– lip sync mismatch

6. Prevention:
– Dont trust urgent financial calls
– use Multi factor authentication
– Have a secondary channel for video or audio verification
– Use Ai detection tools
– periodically conduct employee awareness trainings
Ethical and legal concerns:
– There should be strong Deepfake regulation countries
– It is very challenging to prove authenticity in the court
– It has caused privacy violation, defamation and harrassment
In future we may face threats such as fraud automation powered using Ai. It also may become harder to detect frauds. It will create a state of Ai vs Ai cybersecurity battle. Deepfake Ai is a double edge sword. Ai detection systems,strong security policies are essential to combat the growing threat.

Cybersecurity Awareness

Posted on December 30, 2025December 30, 2025 by Snehal Dahiphale

Every October is observed as Cybersecurity awareness month. Awareness helps to protect digital assets in cyberspace. Today we use computers or smartphones for many activities. So it is very important for employees of every organisation to stay aware. Now the question is what is Cybersecurity awareness?

Today many organisations, government and private, both face cyber attacks.Civilians also fall prey to CyberSecurity awareness means becoming aware of all the attacks or threats while performing cyber activities. Cyber offenders/criminals means a person is executing a cyber attack. Victim is the person who falls for the cyber attack.Cyber offenders are always finding new ways to exploit defence tools,mechanisms. To bring down cyber crime it is important to increase cybersecurity awareness programs. Such programs should be often conducted for organisation employees, teens,college students,senior citizens.

For organisational employees role based training is the best way to create awareness. Organisations should allocate budget and resources for training programs. They should be given personalised training materials and training sessions should be planned in advance. Learning objectives and outcomes should be defined prior. Training materials must have scenarios which employees might face in real time. Adding simulations to training materials helps in increasing logic of the employees. Along with the awareness programs an email with Cybersecurity tips should be sent to all employees. Employees should be given training for both physical and logical security. CISA and Infosec create many free training kits for the same. When employees face a cyber incident they should be prepared for it and give appropriate responses. They should be able to prevent attacks as there is a saying ”prevention is better than cure”. Employees must use cyber security practices for professional and personal use as nowadays work from home culture is emerging.

Few examples of CyberAttack

Earlier I had mentioned that teens, college students and senior citizens are the soft targets of the attackers. In such cases victims suffer emotional and financial loss. Students and teens fall prey to dating, online gaming scams, scholarship and grants scams. These scams begin with mail or phone calls. They give lucrative offers to them and tell them to do money transfers to fake accounts setup by them. Once the money transfer is done attackers block all the contact details such as phone numbers, mail ids and stop responding. Some attackers call again and again with such offers to get more money.

Most of the teens and students create social media accounts to get dates or increase their followers. First step attackers take is social engineering to gather all information of the victims. Then attackers create fake accounts of girls/boys and use display pics from different google or other social media accounts. They chat with boys/girls and make them fall in love. They indulge in sex chats or video calls with edited videos and then blackmail victims by showing screenshots of the chats. They give threats that they will share chats or call recordings with parents or relatives of the victims if they don’t pay the money. Some lonely middle- aged persons also become victims of such attacks. Senior citizens are victims of fake holiday scams.

Many women receive fake threat calls. Attackers threaten them to post their porn videos, nude images on websites if they don’t pay money. Many women are afraid of sharing such incidents to their nearest ones or filing a complaint. This is where attackers get advantage and money. It is very important for women to come out and speak with the nearest one or file a complaint.

Businessmen are also victims of cyberattacks. They are given offers of earning a lot of money through import export or other such business. Attacker poses as an abroad investor. They call the businessman and show their willingness to invest a high amount of money into their business. They create a fake situation and attackers ask them for money in the name of government taxes as a bond of trust. This is how businessmen are deceived. Wholesale and retail shopkeepers are cheated through fake e-commerce websites or QR code scams. Military man scam is popular for e-commerce sites. When a user posts items for sale, he will get a call from a scamster posing as a military person willing to buy the item immediately for a higher price than posted. They send their own account QR codes for payment and tell you to enter your UPI pin. Once a victim enters his pin, money from his account is debited and it is credited to the attacker’s account.

Some attackers choose important events to execute their attack. IPL is the biggest event going on in India. Large number of users are active on online betting apps. Attackers create fake websites or apps for online betting. Below are the few examples:

Attacker could not get the original domain name and that’s why they chose the above names. Spelling of the word online everywhere is wrong in the above list.

Attacker also creates a fake payment gateway with logos of popular banks. Victim ends up paying money to the attacker and not the website. Please note that these websites are already down.

Voice cloning is used nowadays to execute a cyber attack. Attackers use voice changers and call the victim posing as his/her relative from a different number.. They will say that I am at the furniture shop and purchasing table and please transfer rs 50000/- to this mobile number.

Victim is deceived because of the voice of his/her relative and ends up paying money.

Preventive Tips

Many financial institutes are running cybersecurity awareness campaigns to prevent crimes. Advertisement campaigns of the Reserve bank of India are impressive. Many Cybersecurity professionals and organisations are engaged in awareness activities. Most of the attackers are victorious because of the emotional defeat of the victim. They take advantage of lust, loneliness, jealousy, greed, fear. A strong person with emotional balance and prevention knowledge will not fall for cyber attacks. Below are few tips to prevent cyber attacks for all:

1. Never share credit/debit card CVV, OTP, net banking id and passwords with anyone.

2. Use strong passwords.

3.Use antivirus and remove malwares, adwares by periodic scanning.

4. Keep bluetooth,NFC, wifi, mobile internet off when not needed.

5. Avoid using public networks.

6. Read and remember tips given on the websites of financial institutes.

All of us let’s take a pledge to stay alert and prevent prevent from falling to cyber attack. Let us also pledge to increase awareness against cyber crime amongst everyone.

Help Cybercrime Victims

Posted on December 30, 2025December 30, 2025 by Snehal Dahiphale

Today electronic devices such as computers, cell phones are used to commit crime or e-crime. Credit card fraud, pornography blackmailing, fake lottery scam, holiday, job scam are few examples of crimes. Law and enforcement agencies also use electronic devices to crackdown crime and catch cyber offenders. Digital evidence plays a crucial role in prosecuting cyber offenders.

Digital evidence is the evidence collected using electronic devices and found admissible in court. Few examples of digital evidence:

1. Image/Photo or video captured using cell phone/camera device.

2. Call recordings.

3. Text messages.

4. Audio recordings.

5. CCTV footages.

6. Instant messaging chats.

7. E-mails from valid mail ids.

8. Invoices of e-commerce transactions.

9. Bank/financial statements.

10. Internet browsing history.

After year 2000, digital evidence is accepted in Indian court due to faster evolution of technology. Indian Penal Code 65-B deals with the creation of digital evidence and devices used for the creation. While submitting evidence in court, a 65-B certificate is required. This certificate can be issued by the device owner also. This certificate states the working condition of the device in which the evidence is collected. Without this certificate, evidence is not admissible in court.

After collection, it is necessary to examine the evidence. The digital evidence which is collected should be free from any kind of manipulation, tampering, or any type of edits. After evidence analysis, this 65-B certificate should be issued. The certificate should state:

1. Circumstances under which the digital evidence was produced.

2. All the details of the device including ownership.

3. Legality of the record or evidence.

The evidence created should not infringe the privacy of others. For example, while recording a call, both parties should have information that the call is being recorded. To conclude, a certificate by the owner of the device or the lawful operator of the device is essential for the admissibility of the electronic evidence.

Digital Evidence and 65-B Certificate

Posted on December 30, 2025December 30, 2025 by Snehal Dahiphale

Today electronic devices such as computers, cell phones are used to commit crime or e-crime. Credit card fraud, pornography blackmailing, fake lottery scam, holiday, job scam are few examples of crimes. Law and enforcement agencies also use electronic devices to crackdown crime and catch cyber offenders. Digital evidence plays a crucial role in prosecuting cyber offenders.

Digital evidence is the evidence collected using electronic devices and found admissible in court. Few examples of digital evidence:

1. Image/Photo or video captured using cell phone/camera device.

2. Call recordings.

3. Text messages.

4. Audio recordings.

5. CCTV footages.

6. Instant messaging chats.

7. E-mails from valid mail ids.

8. Invoices of e-commerce transactions.

9. Bank/financial statements.

10. Internet browsing history.

After year 2000, digital evidence is accepted in Indian court due to faster evolution of technology. Indian Penal Code 65-B deals with the creation of digital evidence and devices used for the creation. While submitting evidence in court, a 65-B certificate is required. This certificate can be issued by the device owner also. This certificate states the working condition of the device in which the evidence is collected. Without this certificate, evidence is not admissible in court.

After collection, it is necessary to examine the evidence. The digital evidence which is collected should be free from any kind of manipulation, tampering, or any type of edits. After evidence analysis, this 65-B certificate should be issued. The certificate should state:

1. Circumstances under which the digital evidence was produced.

2. All the details of the device including ownership.

3. Legality of the record or evidence.

The evidence created should not infringe the privacy of others. For example, while recording a call, both parties should have information that the call is being recorded. To conclude, a certificate by the owner of the device or the lawful operator of the device is essential for the admissibility of the electronic evidence.

Cyber Security

Posted on December 30, 2025March 2, 2026 by Snehal Dahiphale

Cyber Security

We have entered 2024 and watching data privacy week. My first blog gives overview of cybercrime, cyber offenders, and importance of cybersecurity.

When we look around today’s world our life is more dependant on technology. Today our first device to access internet is smartphone. Modern conveniences are provided through technologies such as home automation, IOT. Threats are present behind every device or platform we use for day-to-day activities. A steady rise in cyber crime has raised curiosity of learning cyber security. Cyber Security is stream which regulates methods to defend, prevent, all cyber assets such as computers, smart phones, networks from cyber-attack.

One single breach result in financial and emotional damage. The breaches have resulted in customer loss for many companies. It is impacting all sizes of business. It results in IP rights, productivity, identity loss.

Cyber attackers use many types of attacks to conduct cybercrime. Few of them includes:

1. Phishing, Vishing

2. Ransomware

3. Brute force

4. MITM(man in the middle)

In future attackers may develop more attack styles to commit the crime.

To prevent cybercrime and related damage it is important to follow cyber security practices by organization and individuals both. Practicing cybersecurity helps in protecting private data and preservation of reputation. It creates a disrupt free environment to productivity. It streamlines online access control. With Cybersecurity in place organisation can avoid damage due to sudden attacks.

Cybersecurity solutions are evolving rapidly. These solutions help to identify vulnerabilities in the system and avoid the risk of attacks. Many organizations are investing in tools to protect or prevent cyber-attacks. Many awareness programs are conducted to educate people on cybersecurity.

It is important for all of us to practice cyber security and not neglect it anymore. Our information is Gold. Let us pledge to safeguard our information.