Cyber threats reported to the DSI during the 4-month COVID situation

Cyber threats reported to the DSI during the 4-month COVID situation

       Since the launch of its “Rootan” application, an innovative mobile application for prevention and suppression of cyber threats developed by the Cyber Investigation Center of the Bureau of Technology and Cyber Crime of the DSI for downloading and using by the public via App Store on December 25, 2020 and via Google Play on January 5, 2021, the application had been downloaded  5,734 times in total, namely 4,691 times on the Android operating system (from January 5, 2021 to April 25, 2021) and 1,043 times on the iOS operating system (from December 29, 2020 to March 25, 2021) for reporting 1,759 clues. The most reported clues relate to online loaning (1,615 reports), online goods/service trading scams (24 reports), computer system hacking (20 reports), online gambling (16 reports), online buying/selling of illegal goods (10 reports), imposter scams (10 reports), money transfer scams via call center systems (5 reports), dissemination of pornography and obscene photographs and materials (2 reports) and 57 other clues.

“Rootan” application usage statistics (as of April 25, 2021)

Numbers of application downloading and clue reporting

Types of clues reported

       From the data, clues about online loaning were reported mostly in all regions of Thailand. This indicated that the COVID-19 situation caused financial problems to most people, so they relied on risky informal loan with unlawful interest rates. The top 5 provinces of the reported clues were Bangkok (587 reports), Chon Buri Province (113 reports), Pathum Thani Province (89 reports), Loei Province (73 reports), and Chiang Mai Province (55 reports) respectively.

       In the Central Region, Bangkok was the province with the highest rate of the report of clues to crime, followed by Pathum Thani and Samut Prakan Provinces. In the Eastern Region, Chon Buri was the province with the highest rate of the report of clues to crime, followed by Prachin Buri and Rayong Provinces. In the Northeastern Region, Loei was the province with the highest rate of the report of clues to crime, followed by Khon Kaen and Udon Thani Provinces. In the Northern Region, Chiang Mai was the province with the highest rate of the report of clues to crime, followed by Lampang and Chiang Rai Provinces. In the Southern Region, Surat Thani was the province with the highest rate of the report of clues to crime, followed by Nakhon Si Thammarat and Songkhla Provinces.

       With the data, the DSI’s Bureau of Technology and Cyber Crime conducted investigations into the said clues as its special cases and investigation cases. There were the search and arrest of creditor networks lending loans via applications (the special case no.80/2020), the search of 5 locations of Fwiptv.cc as the country’s major copyright infringement (the special case no.33/2020), the case of a group of persons sending SMSs via mobile phones claiming to be from the banks to trick people to update their personal data before withdrawing money from their bank accounts (the investigation case no.27/2021), and the case of illegally posting on the internet about bank accounts, cash cards and phone SIM cards for sale (the investigation case no.47/2521). Moreover, some clues to crime received by the DSI during the said period were forwarded to the responsible agencies for further proceedings. The DSI also warned the public about 54 threats via its “Rootan” application to raise the people’s awareness of numerous cyber threats and to prevent the people from being victimized.

       The DSI recognizes that the criminals might swindle the public or exploit the COVID-19 outbreak situation to exacerbate the problem faced by the public. Therefore, it developed the “Rootan” application as a channel to receive information and clues. The application can be downloaded from Google Play and App Store. The steps for downloading the “Rootan” application is in the link at http://rootan.dsi.go.th/index.html or the QR code.

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Dated, May 7, 2021