A member in-charge of cyber security of a prestigious national security body was in for a rude shock when he found he was defrauded of Rs 19 lakh electronically in an apparent hacker attack.

Pune: A member in-charge of cyber security of a prestigious national security body was in for a rude shock when he found he was defrauded of Rs 19 lakh electronically in an apparent hacker attack.

In a well planned crime, police said the hackers had even blocked the SIM card of 65-year-old Sanjay Govind Dhande, cyber security Member of the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB), so that he does not receive alerts from the bank when his account was being fraudulently operated.

Dhande, a former IIT-Kanpur Director and now settled in Pune, has filed a complaint with the local police after a total amount of Rs 19,01,073 was siphoned off from his ICICI bank account between September 6 and 9.

The Pune police's cyber cell has slapped section 467 (forgery of valuable security), 420 (cheating) and various sections of IPC and Information Technology Act in the case.

"I filed a complaint with the police on September 10 and later, after investigation, they filed an FIR. I was not at all knowing that this fraud was being carried out on me and only after the bank, after witnessing some unusual movement in my account, called us on our alternate number and we were informed," Dhande told PTI on Tuesday.

The senior advisor to the government panel said that banks and mobilephone companies need to deploy "more check and balances" with regard to operation of online transactions and internet banking.

The police FIR states that that an "unknown person had hacked the server of the Aundh road branch of ICICI bank" and the amount was siphoned off.

The FIR stated that the hacker made purchases from the technocrat's account and that the unknown hacker had also locked the Vodafone SIM of Dhande.

PTI