Russian Hackers Infiltrate Exams of Indian Navy And Air Force

The Delhi Police’s has busted attempts of Russian hackers to infiltrate the Indian Navy and Air Force exams through the dark web. The Intelligence Department of Delhi Police were the ones who brought to light an online examination hacking racket and arrested six people who were allegedly helping aspirants cheat in GMAT and JEE entrance exams across the country.

As per GGI The Delhi Police’s Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit said Wednesday that a syndicate of three components functioning from Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Rajasthan used Russian hackers to enable over 450 candidates to cheat in a wide assortment of competitive examinations, spanning out from Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to the Indian Air Force and Navy exams.

Indian Express reports that The gang took Rs 8-10 lakh from a candidate for JEE exams and Rs 6-8 lakhs for GMAT exams. They made money to the tune of Rs 50-60 crore. The CBI is investigating the JEE exam hacking scam.

Over 10 days, the Delhi Police arrested hackers, exam solvers, trainers and coaching institute owners involved in the scam. One of the accused is also wanted by the CBI and Haryana police. The main accused, Raj Teotia (33), has allegedly been running the racket since 2019. Police said he went to Russia to meet and hire hackers for the gang, and also invited them to India during the lockdown to set up the software.

KPS Malhotra, DCP (Cyber Cell), said, “Our investigation shows that the gang helped over 500 candidates clear JEE and other entrance tests and 18 candidates clear the GMAT exam. We received information about their illegal activities as they were charging a hefty amount. These gangs claim to have access to GMAT, IBM, CCISO, JEE and other reputed exams.”

A team led by ACP Raman Lamba first contacted the hackers, posing as candidates seeking help to clear the GMAT exam. They paid the money and booked a slot.

On the day of the test, December 26, the accused sent a link to a software named ‘Ultraviewer’ to gain access to the laptop at the examination centre.

The laptop’s access was then given to a “solver”, who helped the candidate by providing correct answers in the test.

“Our police officer who posed as a candidate scored 780 marks out of 800 with the help of these people. We then started tracing their location. We found they were in Mumbai. On January 1, three persons – A Dhunna, S Dhunna and H Shah – were arrested from Mahim. They were tasked with talking to candidates and helping connect their laptops to hackers,” said DCP Malhotra.

The three men were questioned, and they identified other members. The police then arrested K Goel from Delhi. He runs a coaching centre in Pitampura and was allegedly tasked with arranging “solvers” who could help candidates.

M Sharma, a “solver”, was arrested from Gurgaon, while Teotia was arrested from Jaipur.

“Teotia used to work in a travel and tourism company, and that’s where he built some contacts in Russia. His wife had once taken an online exam and that’s when he started this racket,” the police source said.

A Delhi Police source added: “During interrogation, accused Raj Teotia has disclosed that he and his syndicate had remotely accessed/hacked the recruitment examinations of SSC CHSL (Combined Higher Secondary Level Exam), Indian Navy, Indian Air force, Forest Guard, Railway Group D and JVVNL (Jaipur Vidyut Vitran Nigam Limited), Rajasthan.”

In addition to Teotia, five other people have been detained in the case: Mumbai’s Arshad Dhunna (39), Salman Dhunna (28), Hemal Shah (42) and Delhi’s Kunal Goel (39), and Mohit Sharma (35)

During questioning, police found that the accused were involved in the business of training institutes and exam coaching. Teotia has also been opening “exam labs” on his own to conduct entrance tests and help aspirants cheat, police said. He first started such a “lab” in Agra, and then in Jaipur and Kota. However, examination authorities later blacklisted them.

“During the probe, Teotia revealed that around 450 candidates had passed various competitive exams through his syndicate. Of these, 18 candidates got high scores in GMAT,” DCP Malhotra said.

“The Russian hackers they hired were also making software to get into other exams such as forest guard, the Navy, etc,” said DCP Malhotra.

The hacking and solving process
The candidates were allegedly requested to install software such as Ultraviewer, Teamviewer, and Imperius Remote, which would enable them to control their laptops remotely.

After that, the candidate’s device would be linked to the solver’s computer, who would then attempt all of the exam’s queries.

To hide their tracks, the cybercriminals would hide the remote access file on the student’s computer as a system file. They also inserted additional technology to help dodge discovery by exam-conducting authorities/companies’ security software, making it challenging for supervisors to spot irregularities in student motion.

At the time when infiltration from neighboring countries has happened since independence, One question we regularly see missing from reporting on such issues is how many people have infiltrated using these means.