India boosts Telecom cybersecurity through a new agreement to fight digital fraud

A Better Protection against cyber attacks.

India has made a big move towards ensuring its rapidly expanding digital economy through combating the increasing number of cybercrime and financial fraud involving use of telecom resources. Recently the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the intelligence exchange and coordination. The collaboration is geared towards developing a strong system of fraud detection and prevention, particularly on the provision of digital payments.

Finding partners to deal with safer.

The formalisation of the MoU took place with the presence of top-level government leaders which marked the beginning of a new stage of inter-agency cooperation. There was an emphasis on the need to eliminate silos between departments to combat more sophisticated fraud schemes. Through collaborating on both telecom and financial intelligence, the two agencies aim to proactively ensure that citizens are not ripped off through scam.

Key Features of the MoU

• Real-Time Data Exchange: DoT will circulate its Mobile Number Revocation List (which contains disconnected numbers with reason) whereas FIU-IND will circulate those which are associated with suspicious transactions.

• Fraud Risk Indicators (FRI): The mobile numbers will be industry stratified in terms of risk with the assistance of banks and the payment companies identifying the fraudulent accounts beforehand.

• Tech-Activated Coordination: Two tools such as the Digital Intelligence Platform by DoT and the Finnex 2.0 by the Faculty of FIU-IND will allow sharing data quickly and safely and efficiently.

Impact on Cybersecurity

This partnership enhances the telecom cybersecurity wall through fighting fraud actively, as opposed to reactively. With the new regulations, financial institutions can check out high-security GSM before they approve the transactions that could cause frustration. Just initially, 4.8 million fraudulent transactions have been prevented by utilizing FRI data, and over Rs140 crore saved, already.

Technological Backbone

A folklore published by DoT's Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) is using AI software like ASTR (detecting multiple SIMs with fake identities) and CIOR (blocking spoofing international calls). The portal that it uses, Sanchar Saathi has broken more than 28 million spurious mobile links. Finnex 2.0 by FIU-IND helps in enhancing the suspicious transaction report analysis. Both of them are effective in offering overall protection against cyber fraud.

Instead, towards a Safer Digital Economy.

Standard protocols, collaborative guidelines, and ongoing consultations opportunities will be created through the MoU to deal with the arising cyber threats. As a result of having an enhanced inter-agency synergy, India is developing a future ready system that can defend the citizens, financial institutions, and the digital economy against fraud risks.