According to a senior intelligence officer, digital honey-trapping served as the primary hook.
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About six months ago, a team of officers in Andhra Pradesh’s Counter Intelligence Cell (CIC) noticed an unusual pattern of messaging across various social media platforms, including interactive messaging applications such as WhatsApp./
What intrigued the officers was an abnormal frequency of incoming and outgoing international communications. The communication pattern was immediately red-flagged. The CIC team alerted central intelligence agencies and leveraged the resources of NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) and CMS (Central Monitoring System) ֪— core components of India’s security infrastructure designed to combat terrorism, espionage, and cross-border threats — to trace Internet Protocol (IP) logs and WhatsApp One-Time Password (OTP) sharing patterns.
Published – October 23, 2026 07:11 am IST
