India’s cybersecurity organization, known as CERT-In, has issued a dangerous alert regarding the rise of AI-based cyber-attacks on the financial industries in the country. Till now, cyber crimes have impacted the NBFCs, financial technology companies, digital lending websites, payment aggregators, and cryptocurrency exchanges.
In its advisory issued on 4th November 2026, CERT-In confirmed that the parties involved in this ongoing operation were identified to be CRAFTY FALCON and warned that the cyber criminals are using AI to make cyber-attacks easier and, thus taking advantage of weaknesses in security measures for executing unauthorized financial transactions through this technology.
Artificial Intelligence Tools Speed Up Cyber Crime
As per reports from CERT-In, the hackers used the publicly available AI topnotch malware such as ARTEX, PentAGI, Cairn and CyberStrikeAI.
These tools have the capability of finding vulnerabilities, creating specially tailored malware, and changing the attacks according to the responses of the infected machines.
AS opposed to regular attacks which involve considerable human effort, in AI-enabled operations all the steps of an attack may be executed quickly which makes it more complicated to find and prevent an attack.
The agency also observed that attackers frequently rotate their IP addresses and infrastructure to evade security monitoring.
Financial APIs and Cloud Infrastructure Targeted
Investigations have determined that CRAFTY FALCON primarily exploits weaknesses in payment and disbursement application programming interfaces (APIs) to perform unauthorized fund transfers.
Attackers are also targeting cloud infrastructure, compromising exposed testing environments and exploiting shared credentials to access production systems.
In some of the incidents, attackers would conduct small balance checks, particularly ₹1 transfers, to ascertain if current compromised payment systems could actually process any unauthorized transaction before attempting with larger transfers.
CERT-In went on to warn the cryptocurrency exchanges of being under security threat with stolen wallet credentials and unauthorized withdrawal of cryptocurrencies.
Another more worrisome fact is that previously targeted organizations have reportedly undergone repeated attacks, especially where earlier remediation actions have remained incomplete.
CERT-In Calls for Enhanced Cybersecurity
To combat the growing danger of cyberattacks, CERT-In has recommended that financial entities adopt more robust defensive measures and supervise vital infrastructure around the clock.
Companies are advised to take the necessary actions to enforce stricter API authentication, observe abnormal financial transactions, limit unneeded cloud access, and isolate the testing environment from the operational network.
The organization has also stressed the significance of having a 24/7 security monitoring system, particularly weekends when there is limited workforce available to detect any possible threat.
Moreover, businesses must put a zero-trust security system into practice, set up distinct activity records, and regulate an effective incident response system.
Rising Worry Regarding AI Based Cybercrime
CRAFTY FALCON operation brings to light how AI is transforming the threats in cybersecurity. Technologies which were used for security analysis can now be exploited for successfully carrying out attacks.
As the financial ecosystem across India is developing through digital banking, companies should focus even more on securing their financial Cloud and API systems.
CERT-In recommends companies to get the information about suspicious activities provided to them as soon as possible and take precautionary measures.
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