Attention J&K officers: Stay alert against identify theft, phishing; cybercriminals are on prowl

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir administration has blown the lid off a major conspiracy to target government organizations and misuse the identities of senior officials for cyber frauds.

Principal Secretary to the Government, General Administration Department (GAD), Manoj Kumar Dwivedi issued an advisory over the misuse of identities of senior-level government functionaries by cybercriminals through emails, telephone numbers, WhatsApp, and other messaging applications.

“Government organizations and authorities have especially been targets of these activities for a variety of reasons. Of late, such instances have been reported from various officers/officials of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, wherein, identities of senior-level UT functionaries are being used along with emails, telephone numbers, WhatsApp, and other messaging applications for conveying instructions/directions,” the advisory said.

The administration said that they have issued circulars to all the departments for preventing such cyber frauds.

“The seriousness of the matter has necessitated issuing circular instructions to all the departments to ensure that the identities of government functionaries are not misused by the cybercriminals,” it said.

The government has directed the Administrative Secretaries, HoDs, and Managing Directors of various government organizations and corporations to authenticate any instructions or direction received from any government functionary “before processing or acting upon them.”

“The department shall also sensitize their officers/officials regarding these cyber-attacks, frauds,” the advisory said.

The administration also warned the officials of strict action in case of acting on unverified instructions or directions. “Onus of any adverse result of acting upon these unverified instructions/directions shall lie with the concerned officer or official. No action should be taken with respect to such messages that are in violation of rules, instructions, guidelines under any pretext,” it said.

In the advisory, the administration said that instances of cybercrimes were being reported on a massive scale in India due to the unrestricted availability of data on the internet.

“Instances of cybercrimes like hacking, phishing, identity theft, etc are being reported on a daily basis from every nook and corner of the country. The number of these crimes have proliferated due to the extensive and unrestricted availability of data and access to technical know-how available on the internet,” it reads.

Jammu and Kashmir have been witnessing a surge in cybercrimes. Police have been constantly issuing instructions and dos and don’t’s to prevent cyber frauds.