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Im sharing this to create awareness and hopefully help others avoid the same situation.

Recently, our company’s systems were compromised in a cyber attack. The attackers gained access to critical data and then contacted us demanding payment in Bitcoin in exchange for restoring the data and not misusing it further.

Under pressure and with business continuity at risk, we unfortunately paid the amount they demanded. Despite this, the attackers did not return the data, nor did they provide any valid decryption keys or proof of deletion. Communication stopped shortly after the payment was made.

Key takeaways from our experience:

• Paying a ransom does not guarantee data recovery.

• These attackers cannot be trusted, even if they promise cooperation.

I received a text message from the government stating that I was yet to pay my taxes, but I knew that I’d already done so. Turns out it was a scam so I deleted the message.

An international transaction of a little less than INR 3,00,000 was being undertaken using my credit card. Since in internation transactions (at least some of them), there is no OTP that comes, I would ordinarily not have realised it. Thanks to the HDFC monitoring team who reached out to me in real time for verification of whether I was undertaking the transaction and upon my denial stopping the transaction from occurring. Since that day, I keep my international transactions off and only activate it when I am either undertaking one or travelling to another country.