‘Cyber mercenaries spike fortunes of firms’

Paid online slander, Digital Wildfires, is a social media cyber threat facing companies at the top of their game, says ethical hacker Rahul Sasi.

The image that hit social media platforms two Onams ago was like a bolt from the blue for a Kerala-based FMCG company, which was expecting a spike in sales in the festive season.

The superscription cautioned against using the product claiming it contained human blood and some harmful chemicals. As the image went viral, sales nosedived.

Some ‘pointless’ YouTube videos with damaging titles added to the firm’s woes which eventually sought the help of noted ethical hacker and information security engineer Rahul Sasi to detect the source of the image.

“It turned out that this slanderous campaign was the handiwork of some creative minds who were being paid by a rival company for the job,” says Mr. Sasi, who was in Kochi to speak at the international cyber security conference, CoCon, organised by the Kerala Police.

Digital Wildfires, as the practice of paid online slander has come to be known, is a social media cyber threat facing companies at the top of their game. A new brand of jazzy bike, too, found itself at the receiving end of a similar targeted campaign.

Armed with specialised tools, Mr. Sasi, a native of Mavelikara, along with his team at the fledgling CloudSek in Bangalore, employs a mix of social media monitoring and human intelligence to provide actionable info to tackle such threats.

Besides companies, celebrities, decision-makers and important people are also targeted by cyber mercenaries.

“There have been cases when police officers handling high-profile cases suddenly came under such attacks, intended to put them under duress. While we think otherwise, such posts are made for a ‘reason’,” says Mr. Sasi, who has worked with companies and individuals to tackle the menace.

Mr. Sasi won a bounty from the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) for breaching the high-security establishment’s cyber walls in a contest two years ago, and most recently demonstrated that it was possible to hijack delivery drones if not adequately secured.

Cyber security expert Manu Zacharia, who runs Information Security Research organisation, says use of Ransomware — which denies users access to their own system, forcing them to pay ransom to regain access — is gaining traction in Kerala.

( Corrections and clarifications: This copy has been edited to remove a spelling mistake.)