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Karnataka: Opposition attacks Bommai govt over bitcoin hacking case
on February 12, then home minister Basavaraj Bommai asked the state police brass to make cybersecurity their top priority
Bengaluru: On February 12, then Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai in a review meeting told the told the top brass of the state police to make priority cybercrime originating from the dark web their priority. Bommai had then said the police have cracked some cases, but they were only the tip of the iceberg.
The statement came months after the Karnataka police arrested 25-year-old Srikrishna, who had allegedly hacked into three bitcoin exchanges, multiple online poker applications and one government e-procurement website. Bitcoins worth ₹9 crore were recovered from him, which he had either stolen using data theft or through online extortion. He is also accused in the case of stealing ₹11 crore from the e-procurement portal.
It was this case that prompted Bommai to give the police a new direction, which has now snowballed into a controversy where the Opposition is accusing the government of trying to cover up the case.
Srikrishna was caught on November 18 after police arrested some drug dealers, to whom he had allegedly sold drugs procured from the dark web. Srikrishna graduated in computer science from a college in Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 2017.
A senior police officer said Srikrishna would encrypt data and demand payment from owners for the site to be unlocked by attacking the sites online. “After returning to Bengaluru, he could not find any job. He then started hacking gaming and other websites to steal data. He also used to create mirror sites and get information on credit or debit cards used by people who accessed the sites to steal money,” the senior officer said requesting anonymity.
Police said Srikrishna used online gaming platforms with chat boxes to communicate with buyers of data but mostly, he would walk up to people on the road and ask if he could use their phone claiming he had lost his own. “He would tell them he had to get in touch with someone urgently and download Wickr app on the stranger’s phone,” the officer said.
Wickr is an encrypted messaging app, which also has a ‘burn-on-read’ setting, where the recipient will have access to the message only for a limited time after receiving it.
Police had to introduce new standard operating procedures since presenting bitcoin as evidence in court was a challenge. A senior police officer explained that a bitcoin account was opened in the police department’s name and the 33 bitcoin Srikrishna had in his possession, was transferred to that account.
Though it seemed like a straightforward cybercrime, the enforcement directorate was involved to probe a possible money laundering angle, involving the hacker. ED probe has revealed that he had laundered the ₹11 crore stolen from the e-procurement portal to different bank accounts.
Officers aware of the developments said that controversy over bitcoins started over the money laundering charges. The suspect despite having cases of serious financial crimes against him is out on bail. It is alleged that while the official records show that 33 bitcoins were recovered from him, in fact, the seizure was much bigger.
“A tip-off from an international intelligence, which was tracking the hacker’s activity, had tipped off India’s central agencies. From the information available to us, now there is a probe into whether there was cover up and bribe paid in the form of cryptocurrency,” said the officer.
