HYDERABAD: An old mobile phone, minimum proficiency in English and a simple knack for hacking were all it took for a 19-year-old student to crack the code of a company’s toll free number and keep it open to access through a website.
The result: scores of internet surfers made use of the code and made thousands of calls giving a shocker to the company, which received a monthly telephone bill of Rs 60 lakh!
The young hacker, Himalaya Mohanty, used a language translator software for online interaction with other hackers.
He was pursuing a course at an industrial training institute (ITI) at Balasore in Odisha. He had never been to any city other than Balasore. Yet, he learned basic hacking skills through online forums. Gradually he gained enough proficiency to hack Wi-Fi routers, emails, Facebook accounts and also mobiles.
In November 2015, Cyber Crimes police in Hyderabad received a complaint from Lloyd Electrical and Engineering Ltd that someone had hacked the code of their toll free mobile number EPABX, and was making thousands of calls using it. The company’s management received a hefty bill of Rs 60 lakh for the calls routed through their EPABX. As the bill never crossed Rs 1 lakh per month even in peak season, they grew suspicious and approached the police.
“When our cyber team tracked the online footprints of the hacker, they found that he was using a proxy server. He pretended to be logging in from IPs of different countries. However, ultimately, a team led by cyber crimes inspector Md Riyazuddin traced the hacker’s location to a remote location in Balasore district in Odisha. It was found that Himalaya Mohanty had created a website and posted the link to the code of Lloyd’s Customer Care Centre’s toll free number,” said S Jayaram, assistant commissioner of police (ACP), Cyber Crimes.
The inspector along with a police team visited Shibapura village in Balasore and arrested Himalaya Mohanty
The investigators were taken aback when they learned that Mohanty was using an old model 3-inch display mobile phone, using which he had created a website. He used to send a script of Trojan by which he could gain control over the accounts of the sender. Though Himalaya Mohanty did not earn money, the company suffered huge loss.
Hacking for Fun
ITI student from Odisha village hacks the toll free mobile number code of Lloyd’s Electricals
Uses an old 3-inch smart phone to crack the code and create his own website
Shares code facilitating scores of net surfers to make calls
Lloyd’s call centre approaches police as they receive hefty Rs 60 lakh bill.
Himalaya Mohanty says he cracked the code just for fun.