As data-harvesting malware or bots flourish, data of at least 6 lakh Indians have been stolen and sold on bot markets and the average price for the digital identity of one Indian is about Rs 490, cyber-security researchers revealed on Thursday.
India was the most affected country in the world, with 12 per cent of all the data on bots markets being Indian, according to research by cybersecurity company NordVPN.
Bot markets are online marketplaces hackers use to sell data they steal from their victims' devices with bot malware.
The data is sold in packets, which include logins, cookies, digital fingerprints, screenshots, and other information -- the full digital identity of a compromised person.
This growing threat has already affected five million people globally, with hackers selling webcam snaps, screenshots, up-to-date logins, cookies and digital fingerprints.
"At least five million people have had their online identities stolen and sold on bot markets for Rs 490 on average. Out of all the affected people, 600,000 are from India, making the country the most affected by this threat in the world," said the researchers.
At least 26.6 million stolen logins were found on the analysed markets. Among them were 720,000 Google logins, 654,000 Microsoft logins, and 647,000 Facebook logins.
In addition, researchers found 667 million cookies, 81 thousand digital fingerprints, 538 thousand auto-fill forms, numerous device screenshots, and webcam snaps.
"Digital bots are becoming increasingly common. They operate in fields such as customer service, search engine optimisation and entertainment. Yet not all bots may serve good intentions -- many of them can be malicious," said security researchers.
The most popular types of malware that steal and gather data include RedLine, Vidar, Racoon, Taurus, and AZORult. RedLine is the most prevalent of them all.
The 2easy marketplace was launched in 2018. At first, it was considered to be smaller compared to other markets. Yet the situation has dramatically changed since then. Now, 2easy sells more than 600,000 stolen data logs from 269 countries," said the report.
Performance and business model of Dharmaj Crop Guard
The company’s initial public offering (IPO) mopped up ₹251 crore in total via a combination of fresh issue of shares and an offer for sale from existing shareholders.
The net proceeds from the fresh issue is proposed to be used towards setting up a manufacturing facility in Gujarat, fulfilling working capital requirements and for repaying some debts.
Dharmaj Crop Guard is engaged in the business of manufacturing, distributing, and marketing a wide range of agro chemical formulations such as insecticides, fungicides, herbicides, plant growth regulator, micro fertilisers and antibiotics to the B2B and B2C segments.
Shares of Dharmaj Crop Guard listed at ₹266 against the allotment price of ₹237 per share.
The grey market expectation was a ₹55 premium per share.
The market capitalisation of the company stood at ₹899 crore.
The IPO saw strong demand from investors – it was subscribed 35.49 times.
It sells crop protection solutions to farmers to aid them in preventing crops from being damaged by insects. Also, the company exports its products to over 20 countries in Latin America, East Africa, Middle East and far East Asia.
Since the company’s revenues are dependent on farmers buying pesticides, any changes in farmers income, commodity prices, reduction in government subsidies and incentives can adversely impact its business.
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