‘Hoax bomb threat email to schools in 2021 was sent from Pakistan’
Hoax bomb threat:-
As several schools in Bengaluru reeled under a bomb threat on Friday, the police who investigated the hoax bomb threat mail that panicked 15 schools in 2021 said it originated from Pakistan and the sender used a bot created by 16-year-old boy from Chennai.
While the modus operandi is similar to Friday’s incident, in 2021, the bomb threat message was sent to schools from a single mail ID and the police used the help of multiple agencies to crack the case.
According to the police who probed the case, the mail was first traced to Syria and the investigation team initially believed that a person from Syria sent the mail. However, upon investigation, it was found that the sender had masked the Virtual Private Network (VPN) and the trail later directed towards the United States of America.
During the investigation, the digital footprint pointed fingers at a 16-year-old schoolboy in Chennai. The police, after detaining the boy and questioning him, found that the sender had used his bot. The bot was created by him to spoof email. The bot helps imitate email IDs of others and he made it openly available for Internet users.
Hoax bomb threat:-
The police further said after it was learnt that Chennai boy was not involved in the crime, the investigation showed that the email originated from multiple countries, including India. The sender used this cyber tactic to confuse the investigation agency. The police said upon further investigation, decrypting the ID and unmasking the VPN, it was found that the sender was from Pakistan. The police said the sender aimed to create panic in India, especially in Bengaluru, a global city.
The police said in Friday’s case, the message was sent to several schools using different mail IDs. “It may be a little difficult to find out the source of mail. On the other hand, in the 2021 case, the Bengaluru police also used the help of other agencies,” the official said.
Hoax bomb threat:-
In 2022 too, two schools received hoax calls and it was found that they were linked to students. In Rajarajeshwarinagar, the student made a call to postpone the exam, and in NPS, Basaveshwaranagar, the friend of a student made the call as a prank.
