G20 summit faced cyberattack attempts, about 16 lakh a minute, reveals Centre

The G20 summit which was held in September last year witnessed several cyberattack attempt on its portal. Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) CEO Rajesh Kumar revealed said that the Indian cybersecurity sector repelled numerous cyberattack attempt wherein at one point, the rate of DDoS attacks reached a height of 16 lakh per minute.

The revelations were made during an annual conference. The I4C wing established by the Home Minister aims to provide a framework and eco-system for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to deal with cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.

While responding to a query, Kumar said that per minute, 16 lakh attacks were noted on the G20 account during the summit, adding, that the attacks started soon after the website was up and peaked during the summit.

He revealed that I4C along was able to stop these attempts and maintain the security of website with the assistance of several Indian authorities.

The officer raised concerns about some non-national foreign threat actors operating through the Virtual Private Network (VPN), showing their attempts from China, Cambodia and Malaysia. But he said it is very difficult to say the exact place, as VPN networks disguise the identity of the hacker's real place.

As per cyber experts, non-national threat actors send Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) to disrupt and try to sabotage any site. These attacks could have originated from foreign countries.

The G20 summit was the eighteenth meeting of the G20. It was held in Delhi's Bharat Mandapam International Exhibition-Convention Centre on September 9-10 last year.

During the conference, Kumar also spoke about cyber crimes reported in 2023 and revealed that Work from Home (WFH) or Part-time job scams contribute to the highest number of cyber crimes reported in the country followed by illegal lending apps. In another update, Kumar stated that over ₹10,300 crore were siphoned off from the country by cybercriminals since April 1, 2021 of which the agencies have managed to successfully block around ₹1,127 crore in the country

While addressing the conference, Kumar said that also said the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal which was launched in August 2019, over 31 lakh reports of cybercrime had been filed so far. 

Based on these complaints, he also said that more than 66,000 FIRs have been registered by Law Enforcement Agencies of states and union territories. With the help of National Cyber Helpline Number 1930, Kumar said, the concerned agencies helped save over ₹1,100 crore in defrauded money in three years by benefiting 4.3 lakh victims. 

(With inputs from ANI)