Hoax threat calls: MHA asks states to raise spl cyber force

ALARMED over the spate of cyber threat calls to airlines and CRPF schools, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the states and Union Territories (UTs) to set up a special wing of cyber commandos in their police forces, according to sources.

- Mukesh Ranjan

Over the past one week, Indian airline operators have received more than 100 hoax bomb threats resulting in cancellation and diversions of several flights causing huge inconvenience to passengers and monetary loss to the civil aviation sector.

Sources in the agencies dealing with cases of cyber crime and fraud have confirmed that most of such threats were posted on micro-blogging site 'X', and the accounts were created by using a virtual private network (VPN) and then they were chained to create a dark web. The modus operandi is such that security agencies have not been able to detect the origin of the posts, they added.