Digital Crime Soars In India: 7 Lakh Cyber Security Incidents, 93,000 Cybercrimes Reported In 3 Years

NEW DELHI: As internet penetration is rising in India, cases related to cybercrime, digital frauds and hacking attempts have also seen a sharp rise in India.

As per the government’s record over 2.9 lakh cyber security incidents related to digital banking reported in 2020  and a total of 6,96,720 cases were registered in the last three years.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), which track and monitors such cases has reported a total number of 1,59,761, 2,46,514 and 2,90,445 cyber security incidents pertaining to digital banking were reported during 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Sanjay Dhotre said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The minister said that these incidents included phishing attacks, network scanning and probing viruses and website hacking.

Similarly, the Ministry of Home Affairs informed the Parliament a sharp spike in incidents of cybercrime. The ministry adding that the bulk of these cases related to sexual exploitation and spreading of hate.

Also read: Step By Step Guide: How To File Cybercrime Complaint Online In India

Crime data presented in the Rajya Sabha showed that 93,000 cases of fraud and offences were registered in the country between 2017 and 2019. 21,796 cases were registered in 2017 and another 27,248 in 2018. This figure sparked markedly in 2019 to 44,546.

In a written statement, Minister of State (Home Affairs) GK Reddy said, “The motives behind cybercrime in the country include personal revenge, fraud, sexual exploitation, inciting hate, piracy, stealing information, etc.”

By some estimates, India had over 400 million internet users by 2018 making it the second-largest internet population in the world after China.

Also read: Online Bank Fraud: Thing You Should Be Aware To Get Your Money Back

To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government has taken slew of measures for spreading awareness about cyber crimes

The Central Government has also launched National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, www.cybercrime.gov.in to enable citizens to report complaints pertaining to all types of cyber crimes with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children.

 The Government is operating the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) which is providing detection of malicious programs and free tools for cleaning malicious code as well as tools such as M- Kavach for addressing threats related to mobile phones.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) coordinates with its counterpart agencies in foreign countries on cyber incidents originating outside the country.