New Delhi

MINUTES after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi began an ambitious new mobile-phone-payment application in December, several clones of the app popped up at Android smartphone stores. In the first few days, users were flooded with spam requests for money.

The Bhim app sponsored by the government was rushed out after Mr Modi's abrupt withdrawal of large currency bills two months ago. More than 10 million people downloaded it in just 10 days, but in a country where awareness and regulation of privacy, data protection and digital security are low, the number of cyber attacks is rising.