Credit, debit card details of 4 lakh Indians up for sale on darknet

News:According to Singapore-based cybersecurity company,around 98% of sensitive credit card details that are there on the darknet are of Indian customers.These details could have been stolen through phishing, malware or JS-sniffers.

Facts:

Phishing:

  • It is the act of sending an email to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.

Malware:

  • Malware (malicious software) refers to any kind of software that is designed to cause damage to a single computer, server or computer network.
  • It is an umbrella term used to refer to a variety of forms of hostile or intrusive malicious software including computer viruses, worms, Trojan horses, spyware and ransomware among others.

JavaScript or JS-Sniffers:

  • JavaScript or JS-Sniffers are programmes used for stealing credit and debit card information from e-commerce websites. 
  • Under this,instead of physically attaching a device to an ATM, a JS sniffer uses a few lines of code injected onto an e-commerce site to skim data that consumers use to buy goods.