Bengaluru: Mumbai police have arrested a 19-year-old hacker from Uttarakhand, who breached the security of various govt websites and booked flight tickets using stolen login credentials. The arrest solved cases registered at Azad Maidan police station in Mumbai and Central CEN Crime police station in Bengaluru from Dec last year.
The accused, identified as Gariya Vikki, is a school dropout, who had turned to full-time hacking to earn money. He was apprehended by a team headed by assistant police inspector Anand Shahane late Thursday and taken into police custody Friday.
According to officials, Vikki hacked into the MSIL website and booked 17 flight tickets within a 10-minute window, causing a loss of Rs 2.9 lakh to the organisation. The bookings were made between 7.30 and 7.40pm on Dec 17, 2024, using SpiceJet’s login credentials.
TOI article aids probe
Mumbai police were assisted in their investigation by an article published by TOI, which broke the story about MSIL’s website hack. An officer from Mumbai said Vikki confessed to several cybercrimes, including the MSIL case.
Digital Trail Led to Capture
Police revealed that Vikki’s digital footprint ultimately led to his capture. He created an email address ‘gariyavikki80@gmail.com’ in 2023 and continued using it for hacking. “If he had changed the email ID, it would have been a very difficult task to track his activities,” a senior officer from Bengaluru said.
Investigators tracked his IP address and IMEI number to monitor his movements, although he frequently relocated to avoid detection. Police had previously traced his location to Haryana about 15 days ago.
Telegram Groups & Cryptocurrency
According to police, Vikki received hacking training through Telegram groups in 2024. These groups not only provided training, but also assigned him websites to hack. He reportedly paid in US dollars to obtain hacking tools and login credentials, and received payment in cryptocurrency, which he later converted to Indian currency.
Of the 17 tickets booked through MSIL breach, 14 passengers had already travelled before the incident was discovered on Dec 19 — 11 travelled from Mumbai to Dubai and 3 from Dubai to Mumbai. The remaining three tickets were cancelled by MSIL after the fraud was detected.
Bengaluru police have indicated they will apply for a body warrant to arrest Vikki in their case once his custody with Mumbai police concludes.