'Man in the middle' online attack: Cops recover Rs 82.55 lakh lost by south Mumbai-based international school — Here's how it happened

Mumbai police has managed to recover Rs 82.55 lakh a prominent south Mumbai-based international school lost in a 'man in the middle' online attack, an official said on Friday.

A 'man in the middle' (MITM) attack is one in which the attacker secretly intercepts and relays messages between two parties who believe they are communicating with each other. 

"The online fraud took place between February 23 and March 16 when the school started the process to procure material to build a cafeteria. The school gave the contract to a UAE-based firm, which sent its bank details as part of the deal," the cyber cell official said. 

"An unidentified person created a similar ID and provided details of a US-based bank. Assuming the email was sent from the UAE-based firm, the school transferred Rs 87.26 lakh. Soon the school realised something was amiss and lodged a complaint with the Central Region Cyber police station," he said. 

A case was registered against an unidentified person under Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act and the nodal officer of the bank was contacted, which led to recovery of Rs 82.55 lakh, the official said. 

"Citizens and entities must upgrade their systems for time to time to avoid such attacks. Email IDs etc must be checked and re-checked before such deals are transacted," he added.