#FactCheck: Phishing Scam on Jio is offering a ₹700 Holi reward through a promotional link
Executive Summary:
A viral post currently circulating on various social media platforms claims that Reliance Jio is offering a ₹700 Holi gift to its users, accompanied by a link for individuals to claim the offer. This post has gained significant traction, with many users engaging in it in good faith, believing it to be a legitimate promotional offer. However, after careful investigation, it has been confirmed that this post is, in fact, a phishing scam designed to steal personal and financial information from unsuspecting users. This report seeks to examine the facts surrounding the viral claim, confirm its fraudulent nature, and provide recommendations to minimize the risk of falling victim to such scams.
Claim:
Reliance Jio is offering a ₹700 reward as part of a Holi promotional campaign, accessible through a shared link.
Fact Check:
Upon review, it has been verified that this claim is misleading. Reliance Jio has not provided any promo deal for Holi at this time. The Link being forwarded is considered a phishing scam to steal personal and financial user details. There are no reports of this promo offer on Jio’s official website or verified social media accounts. The URL included in the message does not end in the official Jio domain, indicating a fake website. The website requests for the personal information of individuals so that it could be used for unethical cyber crime activities. Additionally, we checked the link with the ScamAdviser website, which flagged it as suspicious and unsafe.
Conclusion:
The viral post claiming that Reliance Jio is offering a ₹700 Holi gift is a phishing scam. There is no legitimate offer from Jio, and the link provided leads to a fraudulent website designed to steal personal and financial information. Users are advised not to click on the link and to report any suspicious content. Always verify promotions through official channels to protect personal data from cybercriminal activities.
- Claim: Users can claim ₹700 by participating in Jio's Holi offer.
- Claimed On: Social Media
- Fact Check: False and Misleading
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Overview:
In today’s digital landscape, safeguarding personal data and communications is more crucial than ever. WhatsApp, as one of the world’s leading messaging platforms, consistently enhances its security features to protect user interactions, offering a seamless and private messaging experience
App Lock: Secure Access with Biometric Authentication
To fortify security at the device level, WhatsApp offers an app lock feature, enabling users to protect their app with biometric authentication such as fingerprint or Face ID. This feature ensures that only authorized users can access the app, adding an additional layer of protection to private conversations.
How to Enable App Lock:
- Open WhatsApp and navigate to Settings.
- Select Privacy.
- Scroll down and tap App Lock.
- Activate Fingerprint Lock or Face ID and follow the on-screen instructions.
Chat Lock: Restrict Access to Private Conversations
WhatsApp allows users to lock specific chats, moving them to a secured folder that requires biometric authentication or a passcode for access. This feature is ideal for safeguarding sensitive conversations from unauthorized viewing.
How to Lock a Chat:
- Open WhatsApp and select the chat to be locked.
- Tap on the three dots (Android) or More Options (iPhone).
- Select Lock Chat
- Enable the lock using Fingerprint or Face ID.
Privacy Checkup: Strengthening Security Preferences
The privacy checkup tool assists users in reviewing and customizing essential security settings. It provides guidance on adjusting visibility preferences, call security, and blocked contacts, ensuring a personalized and secure communication experience.
How to Run Privacy Checkup:
- Open WhatsApp and navigate to Settings.
- Tap Privacy.
- Select Privacy Checkup and follow the prompts to adjust settings.
Automatic Blocking of Unknown Accounts and Messages
To combat spam and potential security threats, WhatsApp automatically restricts unknown accounts that send excessive messages. Users can also manually block or report suspicious contacts to further enhance security.
How to Manage Blocking of Unknown Accounts:
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
- Select Privacy.
- Tap to Advanced
- Enable Block unknown account messages
IP Address Protection in Calls
To prevent tracking and enhance privacy, WhatsApp provides an option to hide IP addresses during calls. When enabled, calls are routed through WhatsApp’s servers, preventing location exposure via direct connections.
How to Enable IP Address Protection in Calls:
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
- Select Privacy, then tap Advanced.
- Enable Protect IP Address in Calls.
Disappearing Messages: Auto-Deleting Conversations
Disappearing messages help maintain confidentiality by automatically deleting sent messages after a predefined period—24 hours, 7 days, or 90 days. This feature is particularly beneficial for reducing digital footprints.
How to Enable Disappearing Messages:
- Open the chat and tap the Chat Name.
- Select Disappearing Messages.
- Choose the preferred duration before messages disappear.
View Once: One-Time Access to Media Files
The ‘View Once’ feature ensures that shared photos and videos can only be viewed a single time before being automatically deleted, reducing the risk of unauthorized storage or redistribution.
How to Send View Once Media:
- Open a chat and tap the attachment icon.
- Choose Camera or Gallery to select media.
- Tap the ‘1’ icon before sending the media file.
Group Privacy Controls: Manage Who Can Add You
WhatsApp provides users with the ability to control group invitations, preventing unwanted additions by unknown individuals. Users can restrict group invitations to ‘Everyone,’ ‘My Contacts,’ or ‘My Contacts Except…’ for enhanced privacy.
How to Adjust Group Privacy Settings:
- Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
- Select Privacy and tap Groups.
- Choose from the available options: Everyone, My Contacts, or My Contacts Except
Conclusion
WhatsApp continuously enhances its security features to protect user privacy and ensure safe communication. With tools like App Lock, Chat Lock, Privacy Checkup, IP Address Protection, and Disappearing Messages, users can safeguard their data and interactions. Features like View Once and Group Privacy Controls further enhance confidentiality. By enabling these settings, users can maintain a secure and private messaging experience, effectively reducing risks associated with unauthorized access, tracking, and digital footprints. Stay updated and leverage these features for enhanced security.
Introduction
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has unanimously adopted the first global resolution on Artificial Intelligence (AI), encouraging countries to take into consideration human rights, keeping personal data safe, and further monitoring the threats associated with AI. This non-binding resolution proposed by the United States and co-sponsored by China and over 120 other nations advocates the strengthening of privacy policies. This step is crucial for governments across the world to shape how AI grows because of the dangers it carries that could undermine the protection, promotion, and right to human dignity and fundamental freedoms. The resolution emphasizes the importance of respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the life cycle of AI systems, highlighting the benefits of digital transformation and safe AI systems.
Key highlights
● This is indeed a landmark move by the UNGA, which adopted the first global resolution on AI. This resolution encourages member countries to safeguard human rights, protect personal data, and monitor AI for risks.
● Global leaders have shown their consensus for safe, secure, trustworthy AI systems that advance sustainable development and respect fundamental freedom.
● Resolution is the latest in a series of initiatives by governments around the world to shape AI. Therefore, AI will have to be created and deployed through the lens of humanity and dignity, Safety and Security, human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the life cycle of AI systems.
● UN resolution encourages global cooperation, warns against improper AI use, and emphasizes the issues of human rights.
● The resolution aims to protect from potential harm and ensure that everyone can enjoy its benefits. The United States has worked with over 120 countries at the United Nations, including Russia, China, and Cuba, to negotiate the text of the resolution adopted.
Brief Analysis
AI has become increasingly prevalent in recent years, with chatbots such as the Chat GPT taking the world by storm. AI has been steadily attempting to replicate human-like thinking and solve problems. Furthermore, machine learning, a key aspect of AI, involves learning from experience and identifying patterns to solve problems autonomously. The contemporary emergence of AI has, however, raised questions about its ethical implications, potential negative impact on society, and whether it is too late to control it.
While AI is capable of solving problems quickly and performing various tasks with ease, it also has its own set of problems. As AI continues to grow, global leaders have called for regulations to prevent significant harm due to the unregulated AI landscape to the world and encourage the use of trustworthy AI. The European Union (EU) has come up with an AI act called the “European AI Act”. Recently, a Senate bill called “The AI Consent Bill” was introduced in the US. Similarly, India is also proactively working towards setting the stage for a more regulated Al landscape by fostering dialogues and taking significant measures. Recently, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) issued an advisory on AI, which requires explicit permission to deploy under-testing or unreliable AI models related to India's Internet. The following advisory also indicates measures advocating to combat deepfakes or misinformation.
AI has thus become a powerful tool that has raised concerns about its ethical implications and the potential negative influence on society. Governments worldwide are taking action to regulate AI and ensure that it remains safe and effective. Now, the groundbreaking move of the UNGA, which adopted the global resolution on AI, with the support of all 193 U.N. member nations, shows the true potential of efforts by countries to regulate AI and promote safe and responsible use globally.
New AI tools have emerged in the public sphere, which may threaten humanity in an unexpected direction. AI is able to learn by itself through machine learning to improve itself, and developers often are surprised by the emergent abilities and qualities of these tools. The ability to manipulate and generate language, whether with words, images, or sounds, is the most important aspect of the current phase of the ongoing AI Revolution. In the future, AI can have several implications. Hence, it is high time to regulate AI and promote the safe, secure and responsible use of it.
Conclusion
The UNGA has approved its global resolution on AI, marking significant progress towards creating global standards for the responsible development and employment of AI. The resolution underscores the critical need to protect human rights, safeguard personal data, and closely monitor AI technologies for potential hazards. It calls for more robust privacy regulations and recognises the dangers associated with improper AI systems. This profound resolution reflects a unified stance among UN member countries on overseeing AI to prevent possible negative effects and promote safe, secure and trustworthy AI.
References
Starting in mid-December, 2024, a series of attacks have targeted Chrome browser extensions. A data protection company called Cyberhaven, California, fell victim to one of these attacks. Though identified in the U.S., the geographical extent and potential of the attack are yet to be determined. Assessment of these cases can help us to be better prepared for such instances if they occur in the near future.
The Attack
Browser extensions are small software applications that add and enable functionality or a capacity (feature) to a web browser. These are written in CSS, HTML, or JavaScript and like other software, can be coded to deliver malware. Also known as plug-ins, they have access to their own set of Application Programming Interface (APIs). They can also be used to remove unwanted elements as per customisation, such as pop-up advertisements and auto-play videos, when one lands on a website. Some examples of browser extensions include Ad-blockers (for blocking ads and content filtering) and StayFocusd (which limits the time of the users on a particular website).
In the aforementioned attack, the publisher of the browser at Cyberhaven received a phishing mail from an attacker posing to be from the Google Chrome Web Store Developer Support. It mentioned that their browser policies were not compatible and encouraged the user to click on the “Go to Policy”action item, which led the user to a page that enabled permissions for a malicious OAuth called Privacy Policy Extension (Open Authorisation is an adopted standard that is used to authorise secure access for temporary tokens). Once the permission was granted, the attacker was able to inject malicious code into the target’s Chrome browser extension and steal user access tokens and session cookies. Further investigation revealed that logins of certain AI and social media platforms were targeted.
CyberPeace Recommendations
As attacks of such range continue to occur, it is encouraged that companies and developers take active measures that would make their browser extensions less susceptible to such attacks. Google also has a few guidelines on how developers can safeguard their extensions from their end. These include:
- Minimal Permissions For Extensions- It is encouraged that minimal permissions for extensions barring the required APIs and websites that it depends on are acquired as limiting extension privileges limits the surface area an attacker can exploit.
- Prioritising Protection Of Developer Accounts- A security breach on this end could lead to compromising all users' data as this would allow attackers to mess with extensions via their malicious codes. A 2FA (2-factor authentication) by setting a security key is endorsed.
- HTTPS over HTTP- HTTPS should be preferred over HTTP as it requires a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)/ transport layer security(TLS) certificate from an independent certificate authority (CA). This creates an encrypted connection between the server and the web browser.
Lastly, as was done in the case of the attack at Cyberhaven, it is encouraged to promote the practice of transparency when such incidents take place to better deal with them.
References
- https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/hackers-hijack-companies-chrome-extensions-cyberhaven-9748454/
- https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/google-chrome-extensions-hack-safety-tips-9751656/
- https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/browser-extension
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2024/12/31/google-chrome-2fa-bypass-attack-confirmed-what-you-need-to-know/
- https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/why-use-https/
