CERT-In’s AI Cyber Defense Praised in WEF Fraud Report

Phishing and cyber-enabled financial fraud have evolved into a worldwide economic threat, with criminal networks now operating at industrial scale. The World Economic Forum’s Fighting Cyber-Enabled Fraud 2025 report warns that sophisticated fraud groups are exploiting AI-generated content, cross-border hosting, and anonymous domain services to target citizens and financial systems globally.

In this challenging landscape, India’s CERT-In stands out. Under the leadership of Director General Dr. Sanjay Bahl, the agency has shifted from reactive incident handling to proactive, AI-powered fraud detection. The WEF/IST report highlights that CERT-In analysed more than 9,800 billion DNS queries in 2024, representing one of the largest security data-processing operations worldwide.

From this massive dataset, CERT-In was able to:

• Detect 2.2 billion malicious domain queries

• Identify 128 million phishing-related domains

• Mitigate 3,044 phishing sites impacting nearly 695,000 users

• Share DNS threat intelligence with global partners in real time

Experts describe this capability as a “continental-scale early-warning system,” enabled by automation, data-driven governance, and global signal-sharing frameworks.

The report notes that CERT-In’s progress stems from a leadership culture emphasizing coordination over visibility. Instead of high-profile interventions, the agency has adopted a long-term operational model built on:

• AI-led prevention

• Massive, continuous monitoring

• Cross-agency response coordination

• International threat-intelligence exchange

This shift reflects a mature, institutional approach that is rapidly elevating India’s significance in global cyber defense.

CERT-In’s threat intelligence now contributes directly to safeguarding the international DNS ecosystem, especially as phishing becomes a transnational crime. With one of the world’s largest national datasets and robust automation infrastructure, India is shaping emerging global norms for digital safety.

The WEF report urges nations to strengthen upstream prevention, domain controls, and AI-assisted detection. Analysts note that CERT-In is already advancing in these areas—positioning India as a global model for large-scale cyber-fraud mitigation. As digital payments, identity platforms, and AI-driven ecosystems grow, CERT-In’s role will only become more critical in the decade ahead.