Jaipur: Rajasthan Police’s cybercrime wing has urged smartphone users to tighten the security of personal and financial information stored on their devices, warning that even minor lapses could expose them to cyber fraud, identity theft, digital arrest scams and financial losses.Additional Director General of Police (Cyber Crime) V K Singh said smartphones have evolved into repositories of banking details, identity documents, passwords, office emails and other confidential information, making them prime targets for cybercriminals.Referring to recent cyber incidents, including the alleged Bank of Baroda data breach and a rise in digital arrest scams, Singh said cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting personal data to commit financial fraud and identity theft. He added that India records more than 1.3 lakh cyberattacks every day, underscoring the need for stronger digital security practices.According to the advisory, cybercriminals primarily target four categories of information stored on smartphones: identity documents such as Aadhaar, PAN, passports and driving licences; banking credentials; personal photos, videos and AI chat histories; and corporate emails and confidential documents. Police said such data can be misused to obtain fake SIM cards and bank accounts, commit financial fraud, blackmail victims or carry out corporate espionage.Quoting recent studies, Singh said 61% of smartphone users store personal documents on their devices, 60% keep photos and videos, 38% store banking information, 48% office emails, 37% AI chat histories and 34% passwords.The cybercrime wing advised people to avoid carrying out banking transactions over public Wi-Fi and use a trusted VPN if unavoidable. It also recommended enabling storage encryption and screen locks, granting applications only essential permissions, downloading apps only from official app stores, protecting cloud backups with strong passwords and two-factor authentication, and regularly updating device software.
