Sanchar Saathi Row: What the pre-installed app may or may not fix in smartphones – cyber experts explain – Crypto News

The Union government’s directions to smartphone makers to pre-install the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile phones have ignited a political storm, with several Opposition leaders branding the move ‘dystopian’ and accusing the Centre of creating a tool for ‘snooping’ on citizens.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Communications, however, clarified on Tuesday that installing the ‘fraud reporting’ app on all devices would be optional and can be deleted by users.

The Scindia-led Ministry had on Monday said that the Department of Telecommunications‘ (DoT) directions to mobile phone companies for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app in handsets were aimed at safeguarding citizens from purchasing non-genuine handsets and enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources.

Criticising the Centre, Congress Member of Parliament, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, called the Centre’s Sanchar Saathi app a tool for ‘snooping on citizens’ mobile phones, describing it as a step towards turning India into a dictatorship. Earlier, her party colleague and fellow Parliamentarian, K.C. Venugopal, called the app a ‘dystopian’ tool.

What can Sanchar Saathi app solve?

Cybersecurity experts said that while the Sanchar Saathi app was an excellent tool in addressing the fake handset issue, critical gaps remain.

“The Sanchar Saathi and SIM-binding mandates are excellent at solving ‘mass volume’ fraud. They will effectively choke the supply chain of fake handsets and blacklisted IMEIs, making it harder for criminals to operate largely anonymous bot farms,” Vijender Yadav, CEO and Co-founder of Accops, a firm that works in digital workplace solutions, told LiveMint, adding that the new regulatory mandates should be treated as a baseline, not the ceiling

However, the critical gap remains ‘authorised fraud’—such as mule accounts or digital arrests—where the device and SIM are genuine, but the user is either complicit or coerced, according to Yadav.

“A regulatory mandate can verify the hardware is legal, but it cannot verify if the intent of the session is malicious. That requires continuous evaluation of the session context, not just a static checklist,” he said.

The government, in its official communication, had stated earlier this week that the DoT directions for the pre-installation of the Sanchar Saathi app on mobile handsets are aimed at safeguarding citizens from purchasing non-genuine handsets, enabling easy reporting of suspected misuse of telecom resources.

What can these measures not fully solve?

Amit Relan, CEO and Co-founder of mFilterIt, an ad fraud detection and prevention company focused on Ad verification and protection, said the recent push from Sanchar Saathi to stricter SIM activation rules and tighter controls on fake handsets is in the right direction. It raises the cost of low-end fraud: junk devices, loosely-KYCed SIMs, and basic identity spoofing become harder to scale, he said.

But, Relan said, one needs to be realistic about what these measures can’t fully solve.

“They don’t stop SIM-swap and social-engineering fraud where a legitimate SIM is taken over. They don’t fully address account takeover via phishing, malware, remote access tools, or OTP-stealing apps. They don’t protect against mule accounts where ‘real’ identities are misused for fraudulent flows,” he told LiveMint.

The DoT is undertaking the Sanchar Saathi initiative to curb the misuse of telecom resources for cyber frauds and ensure telecom cybersecurity, the statement said.

“These mandates are a strong first layer. They clean up the ecosystem and remove obvious loopholes. But sophisticated fraud has already moved to multi-vector attacks that combine social engineering, malware, device emulation, and identity abuse. That’s where the next layer of controls is urgently needed,” said Relan.

According to Nikhil Jhanji, senior product manager at IDfy, a technology solutions firm specialising in identity verification, telecom fraud has increased significantly because attackers utilise breached data, convincing impersonation tactics, and rapid-fire methods that outpace traditional controls.

“In that sense, Sanchar Saathi is a wake-up call, as it exposes the many gaps still existing in our mobile identity landscape and shows why citizens need real visibility into the connections made in their name, he said.

“From a cybersecurity standpoint, the uncomfortable truth is that criminals are innovating faster than most platforms can respond. Unless the ecosystem tightens identity assurance and starts catching threats earlier in the journey, we will continue to hand attackers an advantage they do not deserve. This moment demands sharper vigilance and a more unified defence,” he told LiveMint.