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Cyber security and data protection

Data protection under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, how cyber attacks work, including those on artificial intelligence systems and critical infrastructure, cyber crime, and the agencies that respond. It serves GS3 answers on cyber security.

Foundation note: The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023

Showing 2 of 5 articles, those that changed from 1 to 30 June 2026.Show all

Prompt injection and ASCII smuggling

Prelims

Unicode extends ASCII to the world's scripts, keeping ASCII itself as its own first 128 characters. It also carries tag characters, which copy those 128 but never show on screen, and hiding them inside ordinary text is what ASCII smuggling means.

Hide
Tag characters are slipped into a message, inside a word such as funding or as hidden instructions
Software reads them
A spam filter reads fun and ding instead of funding, and an AI tool obeys the hidden instructions
Human sees nothing odd
The reader sees only funding and ordinary text

From The Indian Express, 6 September 2026

What changed

3 Jun 2026BriefAttackers manipulated Meta's AI support chatbot into linking Instagram accounts to attacker controlled emails and resetting passwords, without proving ownership. The risk is greatest when a model is given tools to act for users: crafted instructions in language, not code, make it act outside its rules. The Indian Express, 3 Jun 2026: How hackers used Meta's own AI to break into Instagram accounts (opens in a new tab) · The Hindu, 6 Jun 2026: Did Meta's own AI help hack into Instagram users' accounts? | Explained (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 6 Jun 2026: OpenAI rolls out Lockdown Mode to protect against prompt injection attacks (opens in a new tab)

Digital arrest scams

Prelims

In a digital arrest scam, callers posing as police or officials keep a victim on a video call under threat of arrest until money is transferred.

Many large scams originate in Southeast Asian scam compounds using mule accounts and telecom infrastructure.
Callers have shifted to internet calling platforms.

What changed

10 Jun 2026BriefThe National Human Rights Commission said Indians lost about ₹52,976 crore to cyber fraud over six years. It recommended making digital arrest a distinct offence, criminalising mule account renting and circuit breakers for high value transfers. The Hindu, 10 Jun 2026: NHRC flags ₹52,976 crore cyber fraud losses, seeks urgent action against 'digital arrest' scams (opens in a new tab)

Also filed elsewhere

Agentic AI: the 2026 incidents and "pacing the frontier" · on AI governance, safety and ethics
An AI agent is software that takes a series of actions towards a goal with little human intervention: it browses, writes code, logs in and pays.
C-DOT quantum security products · on Quantum science and technology
C-DOT's quantum security products protect communications against a quantum computer able to break today's encryption.