Ahmedabad: An inter-state cybercrime syndicate allegedly involved in sending bomb-threat emails to govt offices, educational institutions and courts has been busted with the arrest of two men and the recovery of a staggering list of 5,13,847 unique email IDs and passwords, Gujarat police said.The probe by Gujarat Cyber Centre of Excellence also uncovered alleged Bangladesh links, with investigators finding that the network received financial support and instructions from co-accused based there. Police further found indications that cryptocurrency wallets were used for financial transactions.The investigation began after a threat email was sent on Sep 10 to Gujarat govt, warning of blasts at state secretariat, chief minister’s office, state assembly and the offices of the prime minister and union home minister. The email also threatened countries cooperating with India during the recently concluded BRICS summit in New Delhi.
police advisory for bomb hoax messages
The email was received by state govt’s legislative and parliamentary affairs department at 9.47am. A technical analysis of the email and its digital trail led Gujarat Cyber Centre of Excellence to Bhagalpur in Bihar, where Roshan Kumar was arrested.During interrogation, Roshan allegedly revealed that the email account used for sending the threat was provided to him by Gulshan Kumar Singh, a resident of Deoghar, Jharkhand. Technical surveillance and field teams subsequently tracked down and arrested Gulshan in Deoghar.The recovery of the huge database of email credentials has now widened the probe. Police said the IDs and passwords were allegedly created for sending threatening emails to govt offices, schools, colleges and courts, besides facilitating cybercrimes and other illegal activities.Investigators suspect the accused supplied the credentials to other anti-national elements and used sophisticated techniques to create email accounts and bypass authentication mechanisms.Investigators are now conducting a detailed technical analysis of all 5.13 lakh email IDs to establish whether they were used in other bomb threat cases or cybercrimes.The operation was carried out across Gujarat, Bihar and Jharkhand, with the Gujarat Cyber Centre of Excellence assisted by Gandhinagar police and police teams from Bhagalpur and Deoghar.
