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New Delhi: Indian entities are expected to lose Rs 20,000 crore due to cyber crimes this year, cyber security intelligence firm CloudSEK said in a report. The company claims to have done a detailed analysis of 200 companies across sectors, over 5,000 domain takedowns, data of about 16,000 brand abuse, official data from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) documenting nationwide cybercrime patterns and financial impacts etc for artificial intelligence based projection. "The biggest revelation from our research is the sheer scale of financial losses of over Rs 20,000 crore due to cybercrime, of which Rs 9,000 crore is due to brand name abuse alone. The fact that brand abuse is implicated in nearly one-third of all cybercrime incidents and a staggering 70 per cent of high-value scams is a wake-up call for India," Pavan Karthick M, Threat Intelligence Researcher at CloudSEK said. Cybercrime complaints are expected to exceed 25 lakh, with 5 lakh explicitly mentioning brand impersonation. "The white paper builds upon previous research documenting losses of Rs 11,333 crore in the first nine months of 2024 by I4C. By applying advanced predictive modeling techniques to comprehensive datasets, we project the trajectory of these losses into 2025, providing stakeholders with actionable intelligence to combat this growing threat," the report said. According to the analysis done by CloudSEK Nexus platform , banking and financial services will bear the maximum brunt of the losses of around Rs 8,200 crore, followed by retail and e-commerce of Rs 5,800 crore and government services Rs 3,400 crore. "Investment scams (pig-butchering) and advance-fee scams are the primary drivers of financial losses," the report said. Fraudulent domains (website names) are projected to increase by 65 per cent, while fraudulent apps are expected to surge by 83 per cent, particularly in financial services, the report said.

Midcap stocks got hammered through February falling by as much as 30% as investors scurried to book profits or cut losses. The low-key sentiments on D-Street were on account of both the global and local factors. While Donald Trump's threats on reciprocal tariffs and fears of US economic slowdown weighed on the markets, nearly a third of the midcaps missing their Q3FY25 estimates and valuations were among local factors that pulled the pack.The BSE Midcap index fell by 4,500 points or 10% in February and this week's decline was more prominent as the 132-stock index plunged 4.4% or nearly 1,800 points. In this, 123 stocks ended the month in the red while just 9 stocks managed a positive closing.Ten socks that fell the most in February are Rail Vikas Nigam (RVNL), Tube Investments of India, Gujarat Gas, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), Relaxo Footwears, Delhivery, The New India Assurance Company, Mphasis, Escorts Kubota and Deepak Nitrite. They reported a decline between 30% and 20%. On a weekly basis, there were no gainers with the biggest declines seen in IREDA, New India Assurance, Mphasis, Oil India and L&T Technology Services which fell up to 12%.<iframe title="Midcap stocks: Feb returns" aria-label="Split Bars" id="datawrapper-chart-0sbUQ" src="https://et-infographics.indiatimes.com/graphs/0sbUQ/1/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;" height="485" data-external="1"></iframe><script type="text/javascript">!function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r<e.length;r++)if(e[r].contentWindow===a.source){var i=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";e[r].style.height=i}}}))}();</script>While Trump's reciprocal tariffs have kept markets on the boil, the annualised growth rate of 2.3% by the world’s largest economy in the last quarter after accelerating at a 3.1% pace in the July-September quarter was not taken well by the markets. Prior to this, the country had also reported higher January consumer inflation numbers at 3%, much above the Federal Reserve's 2% target.On the domestic front, 34% of the midcaps missed their Q3FY25 estimates according to a note by JM Financial.Notwithstanding a support from the domestic institutional investors (NII), Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) have been on a selling spree. They sold Indian equities worth Rs 11,639 crore on Friday, recording their worst single-day sell-off in February. During the month, they were net sellers at Rs 34,574 crore.In the 20 trading sessions, they were buyers on just two instances -- On February 18 when they had bought domestic shares worth Rs 4,786.6 crore and on February 4 when they purchased shares worth Rs 809.2 crore. Also Read: FIIs record highest single-day selling in February on Friday, sell shares worth Rs 11,639 crore(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)