AI-Powered Phishing Attacks: CERT-IN Chief Warns

Mumbai, Oct 7 (PTI) Government's cyber security agency chief Sanjay Bahl on Tuesday warned that artificial intelligence (AI) is making phishing attempts more targeted and the number of cyber-attacks will continue to increase with new technologies coming in.

"The malicious actors are the first ones who start using technology. And if you see the phishing attacks, they are very much being used with AI," Bahl, who is the Director General at CERT-IN (Central Emergency Response Team), said at a session at the Global Fintech Festival 2025 here.

"So earlier, you could make out that this is a phishing email. Those who were reasonably attentive and had some idea that this is how phishing happens. But today, even they are being fooled because the AI is making it (the attack) so perfect that you cannot figure out whether this is a phishing email or not," he said.

He said that during Operation Sindoor, there were "coordinated attacks" in terms of misinformation, disinformation, website defacements, phishing attacks, among others, and all such attempts were thwarted.

"There was nothing which went through, there was no material damage to anything, there were no cascade impacts," Bahl said, adding that this was achieved due to years of preparation and capability building, among others.

The within-six-hour reporting really helped, so that in case someone saw something suspicious, they reported to CERT, and we were able to immediately look at what's happening and also alert others, he said.

"Obviously, we were looking at 24x7 monitoring, and any change in the baselines, we were able to alert the entities… So there was a lot of preparedness in terms of drills that we were conducting," Bahl added.