By Gautam Debroy
New Delhi: Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs on Thursday asked the Centre to take more deterrent actions against cybercrime happening across India.
Home Secretary Govind Mohan gave a detailed presentation on the functioning of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the subject “Cyber Crime – Ramifications, Protection and Prevention.” The meeting was attended by the majority of the members of the Parliamentary panel. The Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs comprises 30 members - 10 from Rajya Sabha and 20 from Lok Sabha.
Sources told ETV Bharat that Home Secretary Mohan briefed the members about the steps taken by the government to prevent cybercrime. "The issue of cybercrime is very serious. Inspite of several steps taken by the government, cases of cybercrime are being reported from across India regularly," said a member of the committee on condition of anonymity.
He said that the committee has asked the government to adopt the latest technologies to prevent cybercrime. The members also expressed concern over the cases of cybercrime related to women.
Cybercrime reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal
From August 2019 to March 31, 2024, a total of 38,58,971 cyber crimes have been registered. Child pornography and rape & gang rape (CP/RGR) cases reported 1,65,953. The total number of online financial frauds reported was 28,42,078 followed by other cyber crimes 8,27,757.
With the objective of prevention of cybercrimes against women and children, the Home Ministry is implementing the scheme “Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)” with an outlay of Rs 223.198 crore. The schemes supplement the efforts of the States and UTs in dealing with such cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
Government data in possession of ETV Bharat stated that under the CCPWC scheme, an amount of Rs 132.82 crore has been released to States/UTs for setting up of cyber forensic-cum training labs, training of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and hiring of junior cyber forensic consultant during 2023-24.
The Home Ministry has also prepared a 10-day training programme on capacity building in consultation with the stakeholders, on advanced cyber-crime investigation for LEAs, in addition to 3-day and 5-day training programmes developed previously for law enforcement agencies, public prosecutors and judges.
"More than 24,600 LEA personnel, Public Prosecutors and Judicial officers have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc. under Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) scheme," the data revealed.
Cybercrime Threat Analytics
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), a nodal department under the Home Ministry to look after cybercrime related issues, carries out the analysis of various cyber threats at regular intervals and issues advisories on cybercrime trends, modus operandi with States and UTs, Para Military Forces, banks, financial intermediaries and other relevant stakeholders at regular intervals.
Between January 2020 and March 2024, 178 Cyber Crime Information Advisories have been shared with multiple stakeholders. In addition, 36 Technical Analysis Reports relating to cybercrime have been shared with banks, wallets and payment intermediaries. Further, over 350 Daily Digest reports of various developments and occurrences of cyber crime cases across the country are also shared on National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) and are in the public domain.
Based on these reports, the investigation has been initiated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED), Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) and State Police forces.
A Cyber Volunteer Framework
A Cyber Volunteer Framework has also been rolled out which enables citizens to enrol as cyber volunteers for reporting unlawful content, dissemination of cyber hygiene and as cyber experts to aid law enforcement. A total of 54,833 volunteers have been registered under the cyber volunteer framework for reporting unlawful content and cyber awareness that include cyber volunteers for reporting unlawful content 22,942, cyber awareness promoters 22,071 and cyber experts 9,819.
Blocking of SIM cards and IMEI
A platform for blocking SIM cards and mobile devices (used in carrying out frauds) has been developed on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) which integrates law enforcement agencies, the Department of Telecom (DoT) and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) for immediate blocking of SIM cards and International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) used in cybercrime and reported by the authorized officer of law enforcement agencies. From April 2023 to March 2024, a total of 4,29,152 mobile numbers have been blocked, 69,921 mobile devices locked and 12,086 mobile numbers are still pending for re-verification.
