Telecom authorities block 120 headers with Chinese links
- Headers are used by banks, insurance firms, and government offices to send bulk messages (SMS) to consumers and customers
The Indian telecom authority in India has blocked 120 headers with Chinese links. According to a report by The Hindu, the banned headers were operated by a group linked to a Chinese entity.
The report mentioned that the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) conducted a probe under the Home Ministry and found the headers were hosted from China.
Headers are used by banks, insurance firms, and government offices to send bulk messages (SMS) to consumers and customers. Also known as sender ID, a header is a unique combination of characters or numbers representing the brand or company name of the message sender.
Citing an example, the ministry said that a header of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution (WBSEDC) was compromised and taken over by a Chinese host. The headers were misused to dupe consumers who received messages pertaining to outstanding electricity bills.
The IP addresses of all the headers that were blocked were traced to China, an official said.
The Hindu report added that the SMS contained malicious links when clicked led to financial losses for the user as the hackers hacked the phones.
An official told the daily that the scam was going on for the past three years and it was only recently the I4C flagged it.
In a bid to stop the misuse of headers and message templates, this year the TRAI issued directions to Access Service providers to reverify and block all unregistered headers and message templates in 30 days and 60 days, respectively.
More than 15 lakh mobile numbers have been issued on fraudulent credentials and disconnected by the Department of Telecommunications, Parliament had informed.
Catch all the Business News , Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
MoreLess
First Published:10 Apr 2023, 11:40 AM IST
- Top Gainers
- Top Losers
- 52 Week High