#FactCheck-Old 2020 Lockdown Video of PM Modi Resurfaces as Recent

What Is a VPN and its Significance 

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) creates a secure and reliable network connection between a device and the internet. It hides your IP address by rerouting it through the VPN’s host servers. For example, if you connect to a US server, you appear to be browsing from the US, even if you’re in India. It also encrypts the data being transferred in real-time so that it is not decipherable by third parties such as ad companies, the government, cyber criminals, or others.

All online activity leaves a digital footprint that is tracked for data collection, and surveillance, increasingly jeopardizing user privacy. VPNs are thus a powerful tool for enhancing the privacy and security of users, businesses, governments and critical sectors. They also help protect users on public Wi-Fi networks ( for example, at airports and hotels), journalists, activists and whistleblowers, remote workers and businesses, citizens in high-surveillance states, and researchers by affording them a degree of anonymity. 

What VPNs Do and Don’t 

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•  What VPNs Can Do:
  
  • Mask your IP address to enhance privacy.
  • Encrypt data to protect against hackers, especially on public Wi-Fi.
  • Bypass geo-restrictions (e.g., access streaming content blocked in India).
•  What VPNs Cannot Do:
  
  • Make you completely anonymous and protect your identity (websites can still track you via cookies, browser fingerprinting, etc.).
  • Protect against malware or phishing.
  • Prevent law enforcement from tracing you if they have access to VPN logs.
  • Free VPNs usually even share logs with third parties. 

VPNs in the Context of India’s Privacy Policy Landscape 

In April 2022, CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team- India) released Directions under Section 70B (6) of the Information Technology (“IT”) Act, 2000, mandating VPN service providers to store customer data such as “validated names of subscribers/customers hiring the services, period of hire including dates, IPs allotted to / being used by the members, email address and IP address and time stamp used at the time of registration/onboarding, the purpose for hiring services, validated address and contact numbers, and the ownership pattern of the subscribers/customers hiring services” collected as part of their KYC (Know Your Customer) requirements, for a period of five years, even after the subscription has been cancelled. While this directive was issued to aid with cybersecurity investigations, it undermines the core purpose of VPNs- anonymity and privacy. It also gave operators very little time to carry out compliance measures. 

Following this, operators such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, and others pulled their physical servers out of India, and now use virtual servers hosted abroad (e.g., Singapore) with Indian IP addresses. While the CERT-In Directions have extra-territorial applicability, virtual servers are able to bypass them since they physically operate from a foreign jurisdiction. This means that they are effectively not liable to provide user information to Indian investigative agencies, beating the whole purpose of the directive. To counter this, the Indian government could potentially block non-compliant VPN services in the future. Further, there are concerns about overreach since the Directions are unclear about how long CERT-In can retain the data it acquires from VPN operators, how it will be used and safeguarded, and the procedure of holding VPN operators responsible for compliance. 

Conclusion: The Need for a Privacy-Conscious Framework

The CERT-In Directions reflect a governance model which, by prioritizing security over privacy, compromises on safeguards like independent oversight or judicial review to balance the two. The policy design renders a lose-lose situation because virtual VPN services are still available, while the government loses oversight. If anything, this can make it harder for the government to track suspicious activity.  It also violates the principle of proportionality established in the landmark privacy judgment, Puttaswamy v. Union of India (II) by giving government agencies the power to collect excessive VPN data on any user. These issues underscore the need for a national-level, privacy-conscious cybersecurity framework that informs other policies on data protection and cybercrime investigations. In the meantime, users who use VPNs are advised to choose reputable providers, ensure strong encryption, and follow best practices to maintain online privacy and security.

References 

• https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-is-a-vpn 
• https://internetfreedom.in/top-secret-one-year-on-cert-in-refuses-to-reveal-information-about-compliance-notices-issued-under-its-2022-directions-on-cybersecurity/#:~:text=tl;dr,under%20this%20new%20regulatory%20mandate. 
• https://www.wired.com/story/vpn-firms-flee-india-data-collection-law/#:~:text=Starting%20today%2C%20the%20Indian%20Computer,years%2C%20even%20after%20they%20have

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A video circulating on social media shows a man allegedly rolling out bhature on his stomach and then frying them in a pan. The clip is being shared with a communal narrative, with users making derogatory remarks while falsely linking the act to a particular community.

CyberPeace Foundation’s research found the viral claim to be false. Our probe confirms that the video is not real but has been created using artificial intelligence (AI) tools and is being shared online with a misleading and communal angle.

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Claim

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On January 5, 2025, several users shared the viral video on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). One such post carried a communal caption suggesting that the person shown in the video does not belong to a particular community and making offensive remarks about hygiene and food practices..

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• The post link and archived version can be viewed here: https://x.com/RightsForMuslim/status/2008035811804291381
• Archive Link: https://archive.ph/lKnX5 

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Fact Check:

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Upon closely examining the viral video, several visual inconsistencies and unnatural movements were observed, raising suspicion about its authenticity. These anomalies are commonly associated with AI-generated or digitally manipulated content.

To verify this, the video was analysed using the AI detection tool HIVE Moderation. According to the tool’s results, the video was found to be 97 percent AI-generated, strongly indicating that it was not recorded in real life but synthetically created.

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Conclusion

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CyberPeace Foundation’s research clearly establishes that the viral video is AI-generated and does not depict a real incident. The clip is being deliberately shared with a false and communal narrative to mislead users and spread misinformation on social media. Users are advised to exercise caution and verify content before sharing such sensational and divisive material online.

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Executive Summary:

Given that AI technologies are evolving at a fast pace in 2024, an AI-oriented phishing attack on a large Indian financial institution illustrated the threats. The documentation of the attack specifics involves the identification of attack techniques, ramifications to the institution, intervention conducted, and resultant effects. The case study also turns to the challenges connected with the development of better protection and sensibilisation of automatized threats. 

Introduction

Due to the advancement in AI technology, its uses in cybercrimes across the world have emerged significant in financial institutions. In this report a serious incident that happened in early 2024 is analysed, according to which a leading Indian bank was hit by a highly complex, highly intelligent AI-supported phishing operation. Attack made use of AI’s innate characteristic of data analysis and data persuasion which led into a severe compromise of the bank’s internal structures.

Background

The chosen financial institution, one of the largest banks in India, had a good background regarding the extremity of its cybersecurity policies. However, these global cyberattacks opened up new threats that AI-based methods posed that earlier forms of security could not entirely counter efficiently. The attackers concentrated on the top managers of the bank because it is evident that controlling such persons gives the option of entering the inner systems as well as financial information. 

Attack Execution

The attackers utilised AI in sending the messages that were an exact look alike of internal messages sent between employees. From Facebook and Twitter content, blog entries, and lastly, LinkedIn connection history and email tenor of the bank’s executives, the AI used to create these emails was highly specific. Some of these emails possessed official formatting, specific internal language, and the CEO’s writing; this made them very realistic. 

 It also used that link in phishing emails that led the users to a pseudo internal portal in an attempt to obtain the login credentials. Due to sophistication, the targeted individuals thought the received emails were genuine, and entered their log in details easily to the bank’s network, thus allowing the attackers access. 

Impact

It caused quite an impact to the bank in every aspect. Numerous executives of the company lost their passwords to the fake emails and compromised several financial databases with information from customer accounts and transactions. The break-in permitted the criminals to cease a number of the financial’s internet services hence disrupting its functions and those of its customers for a number of days. 

 They also suffered a devastating blow to their customer trust because the breach revealed the bank’s weakness against contemporary cyber threats. Apart from managing the immediate operations which dealt with mitigating the breach, the financial institution was also toppling a long-term reputational hit. 

Technical Analysis and Findings

1. The AI techniques that are used in generation of the phishing emails are as follows: 

•  The attack used powerful NLP technology, which was most probably developed using the large-scaled transformer, such as GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer). Since these models are learned from large data samples they used the examples of the conversation pieces from social networks, emails and PC language to create quite credible emails. 

 Key Technical Features: 

•  Contextual Understanding: The AI was able to take into account the nature of prior interactions and thus write follow up emails that were perfectly in line with prior discourse. 
•  Style Mimicry: The AI replicated the writing of the CEO given the emails of the CEO and then extrapolated from the data given such elements as the tone, the language, and the format of the signature line. 
•  Adaptive Learning: The AI actively adapted from the mistakes, and feedback to tweak the generated emails for other tries and this made it difficult to detect. 

2. Sophisticated Spear-Phishing Techniques

Unlike ordinary phishing scams, this attack was phishing using spear-phishing where the attackers would directly target specific people using emails. The AI used social engineering techniques that significantly increased the chances of certain individuals replying to certain emails based on algorithms which machine learning furnished. 

 Key Technical Features: 

•  Targeted Data Harvesting: Cyborgs found out the employees of the organisation and targeted messages via the public profiles and messengers were scraped. 
•  Behavioural Analysis: The latest behaviour pattern concerning the users of the social networking sites and other online platforms were used by the AI to forecast the courses of action expected to be taken by the end users such as clicking on the links or opening of the attachments. 
•  Real-Time Adjustments: These are times when it was determined that the response to the phishing email was necessary and the use of AI adjusted the consequent emails’ timing and content. 

3. Advanced Evasion Techniques

The attackers were able to pull off this attack by leveraging AI in their evasion from the normal filters placed in emails. These techniques therefore entailed a modification of the contents of the emails in a manner that would not be easily detected by the spam filters while at the same time preserving the content of the message. 

Key Technical Features: 

•  Dynamic Content Alteration: The AI merely changed the different aspects of the email message slightly to develop several versions of the phishing email that would compromise different algorithms. 
•  Polymorphic Attacks: In this case, polymorphic code was used in the phishing attack which implies that the actual payloads of the links changed frequently, which means that it was difficult for the AV tools to block them as they were perceived as threats. 
•  Phantom Domains: Another tactic employed was that of using AI in generating and disseminating phantom domains, that are actual web sites that appear to be legitimate but are in fact short lived specially created for this phishing attack, adding to the difficulty of detection. 

4. Exploitation of Human Vulnerabilities

This kind of attack’s success was not only in AI but also in the vulnerability of people, trust in familiar language and the tendency to obey authorities. 

Key Technical Features: 

•  Social Engineering: As for the second factor, AI determined specific psychological principles that should be used in order to maximise the chance of the targeted recipients opening the phishing emails, namely the principles of urgency and familiarity. 
•  Multi-Layered Deception: The AI was successfully able to have a two tiered approach of the emails being sent as once the targeted individuals opened the first mail, later the second one by pretext of being a follow up by a genuine company/personality. 

Response

On sighting the breach, the bank’s cybersecurity personnel spring into action to try and limit the fallout. They reported the matter to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to find who originated the attack and how to block any other intrusion. The bank also immediately started taking measures to strengthen its security a bit further, for instance, in filtering emails, and increasing the authentication procedures. 

 Knowing the risks, the bank realised that actions should be taken in order to enhance the cybersecurity level and implement a new wide-scale cybersecurity awareness program. This programme consisted of increasing the awareness of employees about possible AI-phishing in the organisation’s info space and the necessity of checking the sender’s identity beforehand.

Outcome

Despite the fact and evidence that this bank was able to regain its functionality after the attack without critical impacts with regards to its operations, the following issues were raised. Some of the losses that the financial institution reported include losses in form of compensation of the affected customers and costs of implementing measures to enhance the financial institution’s cybersecurity. However, the principle of the incident was significantly critical of the bank as customers and shareholders began to doubt the organisation’s capacity to safeguard information in the modern digital era of advanced artificial intelligence cyber threats. 

 This case depicts the importance for the financial firms to align their security plan in a way that fights the new security threats. The attack is also a message to other organisations in that they are not immune from such analysis attacks with AI and should take proper measures against such threats.

Conclusion

The recent AI-phishing attack on an Indian bank in 2024 is one of the indicators of potential modern attackers’ capabilities. Since the AI technology is still progressing, so are the advances of the cyberattacks. Financial institutions and several other organisations can only go as far as adopting adequate AI-aware cybersecurity solutions for their systems and data. 

 Moreover, this case raises awareness of how important it is to train the employees to be properly prepared to avoid the successful cyberattacks. The organisation’s cybersecurity awareness and secure employee behaviours, as well as practices that enable them to understand and report any likely artificial intelligence offences, helps the organisation to minimise risks from any AI attack.

Recommendations

1. Enhanced AI-Based Defences: Financial institutions should employ AI-driven detection and response products that are capable of mitigating AI-operation-based cyber threats in real-time. 
2.  Employee Training Programs: CYBER SECURITY: All employees should undergo frequent cybersecurity awareness training; here they should be trained on how to identify AI-populated phishing. 
3.  Stricter Authentication Protocols: For more specific accounts, ID and other security procedures should be tight in order to get into sensitive ones. 
4.  Collaboration with CERT-In: Continued engagement and coordination with authorities such as the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and other equivalents to constantly monitor new threats and valid recommendations. 
5.  Public Communication Strategies: It is also important to establish effective communication plans to address the customers of the organisations and ensure that they remain trusted even when an organisation is facing a cyber threat. 

Through implementing these, financial institutions have an opportunity for being ready with new threats that come with AI and cyber terrorism on essential financial assets in today’s complex IT environments.

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