INCREASE IN CYBER CRIMES

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and publishes the statistical data on crimes in its publication “Crime in India”. The latest published report is for the year 2022. As per the data published by the NCRB, State/UT-wise details of cases registered under cyber crimes (involving communication devices as medium/target) for last three years are at the Annexure.

The Central Government supplements the initiatives of the States/UTs through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for capacity building of their Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs). To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken steps which, inter-alia, include the following:

1. The Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the ‘Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre’ (I4C) to deal with all types of cyber crime in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
2. Seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams (JCCTs) have been constituted for Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Vishakhapatnam, and Guwahati under I4C covering the whole country based upon cyber crime hotspots/ areas having multi jurisdictional issues by on boarding States/UTs to enhance the coordination framework among the Law Enforcement Agencies of the States/UTs. Seven workshops were organized for JCCTs at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow, Ranchi and Chandigarh in 2023.
3. National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Investigation) has been established, as a part of the I4C, at New Delhi to provide early stage cyber  forensic  assistance  to Investigating Officers (IOs) of State/UT Police. So far, National Cyber Forensics Laboratory (Investigation) have provided its services to State LEAs in around 9,000 cyber forensics like mobile forensics, memory forensics, Call Data Record (CDR) Analysis, etc. to help them in investigation of cases pertaining to cyber crimes.
4. The ‘National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal’ (https://cybercrime.gov.in) has been launched, as a part of the I4C, to enable public to report incidents pertaining to all types of cyber crimes, with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children. Cyber crime incidents reported on this portal, their conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the State/UT Law Enforcement Agencies concerned as per the provisions of the law.

5. The ‘Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System’, under I4C, has been launched for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters. So far, an amount of more than Rs. 1200 Crore have been saved in more than 4.7 lakh complaints. A toll-free Helpline number ‘1930’ has been operationalized to  get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints.
6. The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform, namely ‘CyTrain’ portal  has been developed  under  I4C, for capacity building of police officers/judicial  officers through online course  on critical  aspects of cyber crime investigation, forensics, prosecution etc. along with certification. More than 76,000 Police Officers from States/UTs are registered and more than 53,000 Certificates issued through the portal.
7. Till date more than 3.2 lakhs SIM cards and 49,000 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by Government of India.
8. I4C has imparted cyber hygiene training to 6,000 officials of various Ministries/ Departments of Government of India.
9. I4C has imparted cyber hygiene training to more than 23,000 NCC cadets.
10. The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 122.24 crores under the ‘Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)’ Scheme, to the States/UTs for their capacity building such as setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, hiring of junior cyber consultants and training of LEAs’ personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers. So far, cyber forensic-cum-training  laboratories  have  been   commissioned  in  33 States/UTs. So far, more than 24,600 LEA personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc.
11. National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Evidence) has been set up at Hyderabad. Establishment of this laboratory provides the necessary forensic support in cases of evidence related to cyber crime, preserving the evidence and its analysis in line with the provisions of IT Act and Evidence Act; and reduced turnaround time.
12. To spread awareness on cyber crime, the Central Government has taken steps which, inter-alia, include; dissemination of messages through SMS, I4C social media account i.e. X (formerly Twitter) (@Cyberdost), Facebook(CyberDostI4C), Instagram (cyberdostI4C), Telegram(cyberdosti4c), Radio campaign, engaged MyGov for publicity in multiple mediums, organizing Cyber Safety and Security Awareness weeks in association with States/UTs, publishing of Handbook for Adolescents/Students, etc. The States/UTs have also been requested to carry out publicity to create mass awareness.
13. CERT-In issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers, mobile phones, networks and data on an ongoing basis.

14. CERT-In, through RBI, has advised all authorised entities and banks issuing pre-paid payment instruments (wallets) in the country to carry out special audit by CERT-In-empanelled auditors, close the non-compliances identified in the audit report and ensure implementation of security best practices.
15. CERT-In and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) jointly carry out a cyber security awareness campaign on ‘beware and be aware of financial frauds’ through the Digital India Platform.

ANNEXURE

State/UT-wise details of cases registered under cyber crimes (involving communication devices as medium/target) for last three years

     Source: Crime in India published by NCRB.

               # Clarifications are pending from Nagaland for the year 2022

   This was stated by the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Ajay Kumar Mishra  in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.