#FactCheck-AI-Generated Audio Falsely Attributed to Rajnath Singh in Viral Video on Student Protest
Executive Summary
A video featuring Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is being widely circulated on social media with the claim that he issued a strict warning against student protesters. In the viral clip, Singh is allegedly heard saying that the government would not tolerate “anarchy” and that strict action would be taken against those blocking roads, disturbing public order, or damaging government property. CyberPeace Research Wing’s research found the claim to be false. The research revealed that the original video available on Rajnath Singh’s official YouTube channel was digitally altered by adding AI-generated audio. The statement heard in the viral video is not genuine and was created using artificial intelligence.
Claim:
An account on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), with the username @ForumDefence, shared a video on July 22, 2026, claiming that Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had issued a warning regarding the ongoing student protest. The video features an AI-generated voice attributed to Rajnath Singh, in which he is allegedly heard saying: “Taking advantage of the student movement, the unrest and violence being spread over the past few days are strongly condemned by the government. Expressing one’s views is a democratic right, but breaking the law and creating difficulties for the public in its name will not be tolerated. The government will not tolerate such anarchy. Anyone attempting to block roads, disturb peace, or damage government property will face strict action.”
The link, archive link and screenshot of the post are provided below:
https://x.com/ForumDefence/status/2079960247888756775
Fact Check:
To verify the viral claim, the Desk conducted a keyword search on Google. However, no credible news report or official statement was found confirming that Rajnath Singh had made such remarks regarding the student protest.
During further research, the Desk found the original video on the official YouTube channel of Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. A comparison between the viral clip and the original video showed that the statements attributed to Singh in the viral video did not match his actual remarks. In the original video, Rajnath Singh was speaking about the ongoing protests in Delhi. He said that the protests were a matter of serious concern and expressed that it was unfortunate that some people were attempting to use students and youth as a political tool for their own interests.
He further stated that the government was committed to addressing the concerns of students and youth, and that dialogue and discussion were the appropriate ways to resolve issues in a democracy.
The original video from Rajnath Singh’s official YouTube channel can be accessed here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w73iPTEfKCA
Further analysis of the viral video’s audio was conducted using the AI detection tool Resemble AI. The analysis indicated that the audio had a 99.10 per cent probability of being AI-generated.
The Desk also examined the viral video using the AI detection tool HIVE Moderation. The analysis suggested that the speech used in the video had an 88.1 per cent probability of being AI-generated.
Conclusion:
The research established that the viral video featuring Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has been digitally manipulated by adding AI-generated audio. The statement attributed to Singh regarding strict action against student protesters is not genuine. The original video available on Rajnath Singh’s official YouTube channel contains different remarks, and the viral clip has been circulated with a false and misleading claim.
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Executive Summary
A photo of Bollywood actress Kareena Kapoor Khan is being widely shared on social media with the claim that she is pregnant again. In the viral image, Kareena appears with a visible baby bump, leading users to speculate about another pregnancy. However, research by the CyberPeace Research Wing found the claim to be misleading. The research revealed that the image is not recent and is actually from 2020, now being reshared with a false narrative.
Claim:
An Instagram user shared the viral image on April 18, 2026, and posted a caption jokingly suggesting that after Taimur and Jehangir, Kareena was expecting more children.
Fact Check:
To verify the claim, relevant keyword searches were conducted online, but no credible media report was found supporting the claim that Kareena Kapoor Khan is currently pregnant. A reverse search of the viral visual led to an older video uploaded on the YouTube channel Bol Bollywood on December 7, 2020, where the same image was used.
Further research also found a similar video report on the YouTube channel Bollywood Bluff, published on December 8, 2020, featuring the same visual and similar claims. These findings confirmed that the viral image is several years old and unrelated to any recent development.
Conclusion:
The claim that Kareena Kapoor Khan is pregnant again is misleading. The viral photo is not recent but an old image from 2020 that is being circulated with a false claim.
Introduction
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on 20th August 2024 issued directives requiring Access Service Providers to adhere to the specific guidelines to protect consumer interests and prevent fraudulent activities. TRAI has mandated all Access Service Providers to abide by the directives. These steps advance TRAI's efforts to promote a secure messaging ecosystem, protecting consumer interests and eliminating fraudulent conduct.
Key Highlights of the TRAI’s Directives
- For improved monitoring and control, TRAI has directed that Access Service Providers move telemarketing calls, beginning with the 140 series, to an online DLT (Digital Ledger Technology) platform by September 30, 2024, at the latest.
- All Access Service Providers will be forbidden from sending messages that contain URLs, APKs, OTT links, or callback numbers that the sender has not whitelisted, the rule is to be effective from September 1st, 2024.
- In an effort to improve message traceability, TRAI has made it mandatory for all messages, starting on November 1, 2024, to include a traceable trail from sender to receiver. Any message with an undefined or mismatched telemarketer chain will be rejected.
- To discourage the exploitation or misuse of templates for promotional content, TRAI has introduced punitive actions in case of non-compliance. Content Templates registered in the wrong category will be banned, and subsequent offences will result in a one-month suspension of the Sender's services.
- To assure compliance with rules, all Headers and Content Templates registered on DLT must follow the requirements. Furthermore, a single Content Template cannot be connected to numerous headers.
- If any misuse of headers or content templates by a sender is discovered, TRAI has instructed an immediate ‘suspension of traffic’ from all of that sender's headers and content templates for their verification. Such suspension can only be revoked only after the Sender has taken legal action against such usage. Furthermore, Delivery-Telemarketers must identify and disclose companies guilty of such misuse within two business days, or else risk comparable repercussions.
CyberPeace Policy Outlook
TRAI’s measures are aimed at curbing the misuse of messaging services including spam. TRAI has mandated that headers and content templates follow defined requirements. Punitive actions are introduced in case of non-compliance with the directives, such as blacklisting and service suspension. TRAI’s measures will surely curb the increasing rate of scams such as phishing, spamming, and other fraudulent activities and ultimately protect consumer's interests and establish a true cyber-safe environment in messaging services ecosystem.
The official text of TRAI directives is available on the official website of TRAI or you can access the link here.
References
- https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Direction_20082024.pdf
- https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/PR_No.53of2024.pdf
- https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=2046872
- https://legal.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/regulators/trai-issues-directives-to-access-providers-to-curb-misuse-fraud-through-messaging/112669368
Overview:
The rapid digitization of educational institutions in India has created both opportunities and challenges. While technology has improved access to education and administrative efficiency, it has also exposed institutions to significant cyber threats. This report, published by CyberPeace, examines the types, causes, impacts, and preventive measures related to cyber risks in Indian educational institutions. It highlights global best practices, national strategies, and actionable recommendations to mitigate these threats.
Significance of the Study:
The pandemic-induced shift to online learning, combined with limited cybersecurity budgets, has made educational institutions prime targets for cyberattacks. These threats compromise sensitive student, faculty, and institutional data, leading to operational disruptions, financial losses, and reputational damage. Globally, educational institutions face similar challenges, emphasizing the need for universal and localized responses.
Threat Faced by Education Institutions:
Based on the insights from the CyberPeace’s report titled 'Exploring Cyber Threats and Digital Risks in Indian Educational Institutions', this concise blog provides a comprehensive overview of cybersecurity threats and risks faced by educational institutions, along with essential details to address these challenges.
🎣 Phishing: Phishing is a social engineering tactic where cyber criminals impersonate trusted sources to steal sensitive information, such as login credentials and financial details. It often involves deceptive emails or messages that lead to counterfeit websites, pressuring victims to provide information quickly. Variants include spear phishing, smishing, and vishing.
💰 Ransomware: Ransomware is malware that locks users out of their systems or data until a ransom is paid. It spreads through phishing emails, malvertising, and exploiting vulnerabilities, causing downtime, data leaks, and theft. Ransom demands can range from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
🌐 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS): DDoS attacks overwhelm servers, denying users access to websites and disrupting daily operations, which can hinder students and teachers from accessing learning resources or submitting assignments. These attacks are relatively easy to execute, especially against poorly protected networks, and can be carried out by amateur cybercriminals, including students or staff, seeking to cause disruptions for various reasons
🕵️ Cyber Espionage: Higher education institutions, particularly research-focused universities, are vulnerable to spyware, insider threats, and cyber espionage. Spyware is unauthorized software that collects sensitive information or damages devices. Insider threats arise from negligent or malicious individuals, such as staff or vendors, who misuse their access to steal intellectual property or cause data leaks..
🔒 Data Theft: Data theft is a major threat to educational institutions, which store valuable personal and research information. Cybercriminals may sell this data or use it for extortion, while stealing university research can provide unfair competitive advantages. These attacks can go undetected for long periods, as seen in the University of California, Berkeley breach, where hackers allegedly stole 160,000 medical records over several months.
🛠️ SQL Injection: SQL injection (SQLI) is an attack that uses malicious code to manipulate backend databases, granting unauthorized access to sensitive information like customer details. Successful SQLI attacks can result in data deletion, unauthorized viewing of user lists, or administrative access to the database.
🔍Eavesdropping attack: An eavesdropping breach, or sniffing, is a network attack where cybercriminals steal information from unsecured transmissions between devices. These attacks are hard to detect since they don't cause abnormal data activity. Attackers often use network monitors, like sniffers, to intercept data during transmission.
🤖 AI-Powered Attacks: AI enhances cyber attacks like identity theft, password cracking, and denial-of-service attacks, making them more powerful, efficient, and automated. It can be used to inflict harm, steal information, cause emotional distress, disrupt organizations, and even threaten national security by shutting down services or cutting power to entire regions
Insights from Project eKawach
The CyberPeace Research Wing, in collaboration with SAKEC CyberPeace Center of Excellence (CCoE) and Autobot Infosec Private Limited, conducted a study simulating educational institutions' networks to gather intelligence on cyber threats. As part of the e-Kawach project, a nationwide initiative to strengthen cybersecurity, threat intelligence sensors were deployed to monitor internet traffic and analyze real-time cyber attacks from July 2023 to April 2024, revealing critical insights into the evolving cyber threat landscape.
Cyber Attack Trends
Between July 2023 and April 2024, the e-Kawach network recorded 217,886 cyberattacks from IP addresses worldwide, with a significant portion originating from countries including the United States, China, Germany, South Korea, Brazil, Netherlands, Russia, France, Vietnam, India, Singapore, and Hong Kong. However, attributing these attacks to specific nations or actors is complex, as threat actors often use techniques like exploiting resources from other countries, or employing VPNs and proxies to obscure their true locations, making it difficult to pinpoint the real origin of the attacks.
Brute Force Attack:
The analysis uncovered an extensive use of automated tools in brute force attacks, with 8,337 unique usernames and 54,784 unique passwords identified. Among these, the most frequently targeted username was “root,” which accounted for over 200,000 attempts. Other commonly targeted usernames included: "admin", "test", "user", "oracle", "ubuntu", "guest", "ftpuser", "pi", "support"
Similarly, the study identified several weak passwords commonly targeted by attackers. “123456” was attempted over 3,500 times, followed by “password” with over 2,500 attempts. Other frequently targeted passwords included: "1234", "12345", "12345678", "admin", "123", "root", "test", "raspberry", "admin123", "123456789"
Insights from Threat Landscape Analysis
Research done by the USI - CyberPeace Centre of Excellence (CCoE) and Resecurity has uncovered several breached databases belonging to public, private, and government universities in India, highlighting significant cybersecurity threats in the education sector. The research aims to identify and mitigate cybersecurity risks without harming individuals or assigning blame, based on data available at the time, which may evolve with new information. Institutions were assigned risk ratings that descend from A to F, with most falling under a D rating, indicating numerous security vulnerabilities. Institutions rated D or F are 5.4 times more likely to experience data breaches compared to those rated A or B. Immediate action is recommended to address the identified risks.
Risk Findings :
The risk findings for the institutions are summarized through a pie chart, highlighting factors such as data breaches, dark web activity, botnet activity, and phishing/domain squatting. Data breaches and botnet activity are significantly higher compared to dark web leakages and phishing/domain squatting. The findings show 393,518 instances of data breaches, 339,442 instances of botnet activity, 7,926 instances related to the dark web and phishing & domain activity - 6711.
Key Indicators: Multiple instances of data breaches containing credentials (email/passwords) in plain text.
- Botnet activity indicating network hosts compromised by malware.
- Credentials from third-party government and non-governmental websites linked to official institutional emails
- Details of software applications, drivers installed on compromised hosts.
- Sensitive cookie data exfiltrated from various browsers.
- IP addresses of compromised systems.
- Login credentials for different Android applications.
Below is the sample detail of one of the top educational institutions that provides the insights about the higher rate of data breaches, botnet activity, dark web activities and phishing & domain squatting.
Risk Detection:
It indicates the number of data breaches, network hygiene, dark web activities, botnet activities, cloud security, phishing & domain squatting, media monitoring and miscellaneous risks. In the below example, we are able to see the highest number of data breaches and botnet activities in the sample particular domain.
Risk Changes:
Risk by Categories:
Risk is categorized with factors such as high, medium and low, the risk is at high level for data breaches and botnet activities.
Challenges Faced by Educational Institutions
Educational institutions face cyberattack risks, the challenges leading to cyberattack incidents in educational institutions are as follows:
🔒 Lack of a Security Framework: A key challenge in cybersecurity for educational institutions is the lack of a dedicated framework for higher education. Existing frameworks like ISO 27001, NIST, COBIT, and ITIL are designed for commercial organizations and are often difficult and costly to implement. Consequently, many educational institutions in India do not have a clearly defined cybersecurity framework.
🔑 Diverse User Accounts: Educational institutions manage numerous accounts for staff, students, alumni, and third-party contractors, with high user turnover. The continuous influx of new users makes maintaining account security a challenge, requiring effective systems and comprehensive security training for all users.
📚 Limited Awareness: Cybersecurity awareness among students, parents, teachers, and staff in educational institutions is limited due to the recent and rapid integration of technology. The surge in tech use, accelerated by the pandemic, has outpaced stakeholders' ability to address cybersecurity issues, leaving them unprepared to manage or train others on these challenges.
📱 Increased Use of Personal/Shared Devices: The growing reliance on unvetted personal/Shared devices for academic and administrative activities amplifies security risks.
💬 Lack of Incident Reporting: Educational institutions often neglect reporting cyber incidents, increasing vulnerability to future attacks. It is essential to report all cases, from minor to severe, to strengthen cybersecurity and institutional resilience.
Impact of Cybersecurity Attacks on Educational Institutions
Cybersecurity attacks on educational institutions lead to learning disruptions, financial losses, and data breaches. They also harm the institution's reputation and pose security risks to students. The following are the impacts of cybersecurity attacks on educational institutions:
📚Impact on the Learning Process: A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that cyberattacks on school districts resulted in learning losses ranging from three days to three weeks, with recovery times taking between two to nine months.
💸Financial Loss: US schools reported financial losses ranging from $50,000 to $1 million due to expenses like hardware replacement and cybersecurity upgrades, with recovery taking an average of 2 to 9 months.
🔒Data Security Breaches: Cyberattacks exposed sensitive data, including grades, social security numbers, and bullying reports. Accidental breaches were often caused by staff, accounting for 21 out of 25 cases, while intentional breaches by students, comprising 27 out of 52 cases, frequently involved tampering with grades.
⚠️Data Security Breach: Cyberattacks on schools result in breaches of personal information, including grades and social security numbers, causing emotional, physical, and financial harm. These breaches can be intentional or accidental, with a US study showing staff responsible for most accidental breaches (21 out of 25) and students primarily behind intentional breaches (27 out of 52) to change grades.
🏫Impact on Institutional Reputation: Cyberattacks damaged the reputation of educational institutions, eroding trust among students, staff, and families. Negative media coverage and scrutiny impacted staff retention, student admissions, and overall credibility.
🛡️ Impact on Student Safety: Cyberattacks compromised student safety and privacy. For example, breaches like live-streaming school CCTV footage caused severe distress, negatively impacting students' sense of security and mental well-being.
CyberPeace Advisory:
CyberPeace emphasizes the importance of vigilance and proactive measures to address cybersecurity risks:
- Develop effective incident response plans: Establish a clear and structured plan to quickly identify, respond to, and recover from cyber threats. Ensure that staff are well-trained and know their roles during an attack to minimize disruption and prevent further damage.
- Implement access controls with role-based permissions: Restrict access to sensitive information based on individual roles within the institution. This ensures that only authorized personnel can access certain data, reducing the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches.
- Regularly update software and conduct cybersecurity training: Keep all software and systems up-to-date with the latest security patches to close vulnerabilities. Provide ongoing cybersecurity awareness training for students and staff to equip them with the knowledge to prevent attacks, such as phishing.
- Ensure regular and secure backups of critical data: Perform regular backups of essential data and store them securely in case of cyber incidents like ransomware. This ensures that, if data is compromised, it can be restored quickly, minimizing downtime.
- Adopt multi-factor authentication (MFA): Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication(MFA) for accessing sensitive systems or information to strengthen security. MFA adds an extra layer of protection by requiring users to verify their identity through more than one method, such as a password and a one-time code.
- Deploy anti-malware tools: Use advanced anti-malware software to detect, block, and remove malicious programs. This helps protect institutional systems from viruses, ransomware, and other forms of malware that can compromise data security.
- Monitor networks using intrusion detection systems (IDS): Implement IDS to monitor network traffic and detect suspicious activity. By identifying threats in real time, institutions can respond quickly to prevent breaches and minimize potential damage.
- Conduct penetration testing: Regularly conduct penetration testing to simulate cyberattacks and assess the security of institutional networks. This proactive approach helps identify vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by actual attackers.
- Collaborate with cybersecurity firms: Partner with cybersecurity experts to benefit from specialized knowledge and advanced security solutions. Collaboration provides access to the latest technologies, threat intelligence, and best practices to enhance the institution's overall cybersecurity posture.
- Share best practices across institutions: Create forums for collaboration among educational institutions to exchange knowledge and strategies for cybersecurity. Sharing successful practices helps build a collective defense against common threats and improves security across the education sector.
Conclusion:
The increasing cyber threats to Indian educational institutions demand immediate attention and action. With vulnerabilities like data breaches, botnet activities, and outdated infrastructure, institutions must prioritize effective cybersecurity measures. By adopting proactive strategies such as regular software updates, multi-factor authentication, and incident response plans, educational institutions can mitigate risks and safeguard sensitive data. Collaborative efforts, awareness, and investment in cybersecurity will be essential to creating a secure digital environment for academia.
