Cybercrime Archives | Page 4 of 127 | Digital Watch Observatory

Data breach at PayPal prompts password resets and transaction refunds

PayPal has notified some customers of a data breach linked to its Working Capital loan application, after unauthorised access between 1 July and 12 December 2025 exposed personal information. Letters dated 10 February confirm that around 100 customers were potentially affected.

The incident was linked to an error in the Working Capital application, described as a ‘code change’. PayPal said it ‘terminated the unauthorised access to PayPal’s systems’ after discovery.

In a statement sent following publication, a PayPal spokesperson said ‘When there is a potential exposure of customer information, PayPal is required to notify affected customers. In this case, PayPal’s systems were not compromised. As such, we contacted the approximately 100 customers who were potentially impacted to provide awareness on this matter.’

Data potentially accessed includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, business addresses, Social Security numbers, and dates of birth. PayPal confirmed a small number of unauthorised transactions and said refunds were issued. Affected users had passwords reset and were offered credit monitoring.

Previous incidents include a 2023 credential stuffing attack that affected nearly 35,000 accounts and phishing campaigns that abused legitimate infrastructure. The company said it continues to use manual investigations and automated tools to mitigate fraud.

Customers are advised to use unique passwords, avoid unsolicited links, verify urgent messages directly via their accounts, and enable passkeys where available. Even limited breaches can heighten risks of targeted phishing and identity theft, especially for small businesses.

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Cloudflare outage causes global internet disruption after an internal error

A major outage on 20 February disrupted global internet traffic after an internal configuration failure at Cloudflare caused the unintended withdrawal of customer BGP routes.

The incident lasted just over six hours and left numerous services unreachable, despite early fears of a cyberattack. An internal update led to the systematic deletion of more than a thousand Bring Your Own IP prefixes, which pushed many connections into BGP path hunting instead of stable routing.

Engineers traced the disruption to an error in the company’s Addressing API, introduced during an automated cleanup task under the Code Orange resilience programme.

A flawed query interpreted an empty value as an instruction to delete all returned prefixes, removing essential bindings for hundreds of customers. Some users restored connectivity through the dashboard, while others required manual reconstruction carried out across the edge network.

An outage that affected a series of core offerings, including content delivery, security layers, dedicated egress and network protection services. Restoration took several hours because the withdrawn prefixes varied in severity, demanding different recovery methods instead of a uniform reinstatement process.

The error triggered widespread timeouts on dependent websites and applications, along with 403 responses on the 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver.

Cloudflare plans to introduce stricter API validation, circuit breakers for abnormal deletion patterns, and improved configuration separation. It has also issued a public apology for a failure that undermined its assurances of network resilience.

An event that reaffirmed the risks posed by internal automation faults when they interact with critical internet infrastructure.

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Phishing messages target IndiaAI and Impact Summit 2026 participants

IndiaAI has issued an urgent advisory warning of a phishing campaign targeting attendees of the India AI Impact Summit 2026. Fraudulent SMS and WhatsApp messages claim refunds are pending and request sensitive financial details.

Organisers said the messages are not official and have not been authorised. Recipients are being urged to click links and provide full card numbers, WhatsApp numbers, and other contact information to ‘process’ refunds.

IndiaAI advised participants not to click suspicious links or share personal or banking information with unverified sources. Attendees in India are encouraged to delete such messages immediately and block the sender’s number.

Anyone who may have submitted details through a suspicious link should contact their bank without delay to secure their accounts. Organisers stressed that event-related communication will only be shared through official channels.

The advisory was issued under the AI Impact Summit 2026 banner, themed ‘Welfare for All | Happiness of All’, as authorities seek to prevent financial fraud linked to the high-profile gathering.

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Strict ban on crypto references introduced by OpenClaw

OpenClaw has introduced a firm community rule prohibiting any reference to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies on its Discord server, according to its creator, Peter Steinberger.

Enforcement drew attention after a user was removed for mentioning Bitcoin block height as a timing method in a benchmark, with the developer later offering to restore access.

The policy follows a rebrand scare when scammers hijacked old accounts to promote a fake Solana token. Market value spiked then plunged after Steinberger denied involvement, warning that no official token would be issued.

Rapid growth of the open-source project, which has attracted a large developer base within weeks of launch, contrasts with wider industry momentum linking AI agents and digital assets.

Leaders such as Jeremy Allaire of Circle argue stablecoins could become default payment rails for autonomous software, while Coinbase is already rolling out infrastructure enabling agents to transact on-chain.

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Generative AI presents the biggest data-risk challenge in history

Cybersecurity specialists warn that generative AI systems, such as large language models, are creating a data risk frontier far larger than that posed by previous digital innovations.

Because these models are trained on extensive datasets drawn from web pages, internal documents, email corpora and proprietary sources, they can unintentionally memorise or regenerate sensitive information, increasing the risk of exposure.

The article highlights several core concerns. Data leakage and memorisation, where AI models can repeat or infer private data if training processes are not tightly controlled.

Amplification of poor hygiene, when generative tools can magnify the reach of bad actors by automating phishing, social engineering, and malware generation at scale.

Compounding breach impact, if an AI model is trained on stolen or leaked data, it could internalise and regurgitate that information without detection, entrenching harm. Cloud and access governance gaps that allow organisations to adopt AI without robust access controls and encryption may widen their attack surface.

The author calls for revised data governance frameworks, including strict training data provenance, auditability, encryption, minimisation and purpose limitation, to mitigate what is described as ‘the biggest data risk in history.’

Recommendations also include accountability measures for models, continuous monitoring, and legislative action to align AI development with privacy and security principles.

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Fake Google Forms phishing campaign targets job seekers

A phishing campaign is targeting job seekers with fake Google Forms pages designed to harvest account credentials. Attackers are using a spoofed domain, forms.google.ss-o[.]com, to mimic the legitimate Google Forms service and trick victims into signing in.

The fraudulent pages advertise a Customer Support Executive role and prompt applicants to enter personal details before clicking a ‘Sign in’ button. Victims are then redirected to id-v4[.]com/generation.php, a domain previously linked to credential harvesting campaigns.

Researchers identified the operation as part of a broader wave of job-themed phishing attacks. The attackers used a script called generation_form.php to create personalised tracking links and implemented redirects to evade security analysis by sending suspicious visitors to local Google search pages.

Security experts warn that the campaign relies on domain impersonation techniques, including the use of ‘ss-o’ to resemble ‘single sign-on’. The fake site reproduces Google branding elements and standard disclaimers to increase credibility.

Users are advised to avoid clicking unsolicited job links, verify opportunities through official channels, and enable multi-factor authentication. Password managers and real-time anti-malware tools can also reduce exposure to credential theft.

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India’s UIDAI rolls out AI-enabled biometric deduplication and document verification platform

UIDAI has deployed an advanced platform that uses AI-enabled models to improve biometric deduplication, the process of ensuring that each resident has a unique identity record, by checking fingerprints, facial images and iris scans against the entire Aadhaar database.

The authority describes this system, developed with the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad, as an ‘Invisible Shield’ that can perform billions of computations efficiently at a population scale, running on high-performance inference infrastructure such as NVIDIA DGX systems to enhance accuracy and speed nationwide.

In addition to biometric matching, the platform incorporates AI-based document metadata extraction and verification to curb enrolment fraud, using secure APIs (e.g. DigiLocker) for source-of-truth checks against submitted documents.

The system is already being rolled out in several states. It is expected to expand across India in the coming months, boosting service quality, reducing turnaround times for Aadhaar enrolment and update transactions, and reinforcing trust in the digital identity infrastructure.

The initiative is part of a broader push to leverage AI for fraud detection and identity assurance at a national scale. It comes amid ongoing efforts by UIDAI to modernise authentication processes as biometric and AI-based systems evolve.

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UK sets 48-hour deadline for removing intimate images

The UK government plans to require technology platforms to remove intimate images shared without consent within forty-eight hours instead of allowing such content to remain online for days.

Through an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill, firms that fail to comply could face fines amounting to ten percent of their global revenue or risk having their services blocked in the UK.

A move that reflects ministers’ commitment to treat intimate image abuse with the same seriousness as child sexual abuse material and extremist content.

The action follows mounting concern after non-consensual sexual deepfakes produced by Grok circulated widely, prompting investigations by Ofcom and political pressure on platforms owned by Elon Musk.

The government now intends victims to report an image once instead of repeating the process across multiple services. Once flagged, the content should disappear across all platforms and be blocked automatically on future uploads through hash-matching or similar detection tools.

Ministers also aim to address content hosted outside the reach of the Online Safety Act by issuing guidance requiring internet providers to block access to sites that refuse to comply.

Keir Starmer, Liz Kendall and Alex Davies-Jones emphasised that no woman should be forced to pursue platform after platform to secure removal and that the online environment must offer safety and respect.

The package of reforms forms part of a broader pledge to halve violence against women and girls during the next decade.

Alongside tackling intimate image abuse, the government is legislating against nudification tools and ensuring AI chatbots fall within regulatory scope, using this agenda to reshape online safety instead of relying on voluntary compliance from large technology firms.

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Macron calls Europe safe space for AI

French President Emmanuel Macron told the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi that Europe would remain a safe space for AI innovation and investment. Speaking in New Delhi, he said the European Union would continue shaping global AI rules alongside partners such as India.

Macron pointed to the EU AI Act, adopted in 2024, as evidence that Europe can regulate emerging technologies and AI while encouraging growth. In New Delhi, he claims that oversight would not stifle innovation but ensure responsible development, but not much evidence to back it up.

The French leader said that France is doubling the number of AI scientists and engineers it trains, with startups creating tens of thousands of jobs. He added in New Delhi that Europe aims to combine competitiveness with strong guardrails.

Macron also highlighted child protection as a G7 priority, arguing in New Delhi that children must be shielded from AI driven digital abuse. Europe, he said, intends to protect society while remaining open to investment and cooperation with India.

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Anthropic seeks deeper AI cooperation with India

The chief executive of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, has said India can play a central role in guiding global responses to the security and economic risks linked to AI.

Speaking at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, he argued that the world’s largest democracy is well placed to become a partner and leader in shaping the responsible development of advanced systems.

Amodei explained that Anthropic hopes to work with India on the testing and evaluation of models for safety and security. He stressed growing concern over autonomous behaviours that may emerge in advanced systems and noted the possibility of misuse by individuals or governments.

He pointed to the work of international and national AI safety institutes as a foundation for joint efforts and added that the economic effect of AI will be significant and that India and the wider Global South could benefit if policymakers prepare early.

Through its Economic Futures programme and Economic Index, Anthropic studies how AI reshapes jobs and labour markets.

He said the company intends to expand information sharing with Indian authorities and bring economists, labour groups, and officials into regular discussions to guide evidence-based policy instead of relying on assumptions.

Amodei said AI is set to increase economic output and that India is positioned to influence emerging global frameworks. He signalled a strong interest in long-term cooperation that supports safety, security, and sustainable growth.

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