The growing menace of cyber crimes and cyber terrorism

Though the Modi government had launched the prestigious Digital India program and the special cybersecurity portal; the ever-increasing cybercrimes show a lack of coordination between various departments.

Hyderabad:Nations all over the world are facing perennial threats from the cyber world. Using the computer, smartphone and digital networks, cybercriminals are committing grave crimes in India too. The number of victims who lost large amounts of money due to these cyber-attacks is also on the rise.

With Hyderabad witnessing at least one cybercrime per hour, the Telangana State Police Department has signed an MoU with the National Police Academy. According to this agreement, the NPA will train the police officials from SI to DSP level, about the modus operandi of cybercriminals and how to tackle them.

While Telangana saw a record number of 14,000 cybercrime cases last year, only a handful of them were solved. Only time will tell if this training would aid police officials in handling cybercrimes better.

Karnataka government, which appointed special police stations for cyber, financial and drug trafficking crime cases; has recently revealed that there was a shortage of trained personnel.

It is a known fact that Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have employed blockchain technology to prevent hackers from stealing sensitive data. Though the cops have been effectively tracing the roots of cyber fraudsters to states like Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand, they are unable to control the increasing e-commerce scams and bank account hackings.

Like the former deputy governor of RBI SP Talwar suggested, the governments must focus on employing access control systems for banking and financial institutions.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are among the top 6 states with the highest incidence of cybercrimes. Between 2016 and 2018, 33,000 cybercrime cases have been officially registered in Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

During the same period, at least twice the number of cyberattacks have happened in AP and Telangana. Bharatpur in Rajasthan is notorious for OLX automobile scams while Jamtara in Jharkhand is infamous for debit and credit card scams.

The recent frauds prove that these scams gangs have targeted the southern states. One recent online scam where the fraudster looted lakhs of rupees by creating a fake PAN card shows the extent of these attacks.

Reports about people burning deep holes in their pockets by believing fraudulent advertisements about huge discounts on popular brands have become the norm.

In the current scenario where people prefer doing every transaction ranging from booking movie tickets to buying groceries online; these cybercriminals are lurking around to attack at the slightest opportunity.

The government of India has recently initiated the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to facilitate victims to report cybercrime complaints online. In order to make this initiative a success, the Modi government must coordinate with the individual state governments in restricting the digital crimes.

Cybercrimes are not just turning personal finances upside down but rooting up the economies. Social media users shuddered after reports of cyber-attacks on Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant network were confirmed.

The recent ransomware attack on the power utility sites of AP and Telangana proved that the nation was indeed facing serious cybercrime threats. It is estimated that multinational companies lost Rs.370 lakh crores in the past 5 years to cyber-attacks.

The cybersecurity enterprise Symantec, which confirmed the massive account hackings in Poland, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Ecuador; warned about India’s dire state of cyber safety. China is developing a unique cybersecurity and data protection regime.

Though the Modi government had launched the prestigious Digital India program and the special cybersecurity portal; the ever-increasing cybercrimes show a lack of coordination between various departments.

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The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) predicted that 10 lakh cybersecurity professionals will be needed by 2020 to protect the nation’s finance and defence networks.

Despite the growing demand for cybersecurity experts, the supply still remains scarce. The governments now have ahead of them, an onerous challenge of controlling the skyrocketing cybercrimes that are plaguing the country.