India’s cybersecurity agency CERT-In has issued a critical warning about an escalating AI-assisted hacking campaign targeting financial technology companies. Named “Crafty Falcon”, the campaign is targeting non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), digital lending platforms, fintech firms, payment aggregators, payment service providers and cryptocurrency exchanges. In its November 4 advisory, CERT-In’s Computer Security Incident Response Team for Finance (CSIRT-Fin) described the threat as “active and ongoing”. The warning follows an earlier advisory issued on October 9 concerning unauthorised fund transfers through payment and disbursement APIs. According to CERT-In, attackers are using publicly available AI-driven offensive security tools to identify targets and execute attacks at machine speed. The campaign reportedly exploits organisations’ own payment and disbursement APIs to carry out unauthorised transactions. The agency identified several tools involved in the attacks, including ARTEX, PentAGI, Cairn and the CyberStrikeAI framework. These tools can reportedly automate attack sequences, generate customised scripts rapidly and adapt their techniques according to responses from targeted systems. CERT-In also warned that some financial entities were deliberately targeted again despite having taken remedial measures following earlier incidents. Incomplete remediation reportedly left certain organisations vulnerable to renewed attacks. The attackers have also timed operations around holidays, weekends and other periods when security monitoring may be reduced, potentially delaying detection and response. The agency has urged financial institutions to treat Crafty Falcon as an immediate and continuing threat. Its advisory builds on earlier cybersecurity warnings as Indian financial organisations face growing risks from AI-assisted attacks.

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