Fear in people main factor behind cyberfraud: Chugh

Fear has replaced greed as the dominant factor that makes people vulnerable to cyberfrauds, said Nitin Chugh, head of digital banking and transformation at State Bank of India (SBI), at Business Standard BFSI Insight Summit 2024.

- SUNDAR SETHURAMAN

"We see people being threatened. People are told something wrong has happened. And they, in a state of panic, don't apply their mind and give in."

No matter how aware people are, they fall prey to such tactics, and it proves fraudsters exploit their vulnerabilities, he added.

"This is another form of social engineering and relatively new."

Social engineering in cybersecurity refers to manipulating a victim to gain control over a computer system or steal personal and financial information.

Chugh said intimidating tactics were used usually for high-value transactions.

"High value could be a few crores. For small value, phishing is used, where people give their credentials or an account takeover."

Chugh said with technological expansion, it was people's responsibility to guard themselves against cyberfrauds.