9,000+ Cyber Fraud Complaints On National Consumer Helpline In FY21: Rajeev Chandrasekhar To Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: During the fiscal year 2020-21, the National Consumer Helpline received over 9,000 complaints of cyber fraud, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that a total of 11,713 and 9,002 complaints of cyber frauds were received on the National Consumer Helpline during the financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively, according to information provided by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs.

He stated that no such database is maintained by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). According to the Minister, the Centre and states’ Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) take necessary legal action against cyber criminals in accordance with the law’s provisions.

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He noted that the government assists states in combating cybercrime by aiding them through various awareness programmes, and that the government has taken a variety of legal, technical, and administrative measures to prevent cybercrime. These efforts include the frequent publication of alerts and advisories by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on the newest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers and networks.

Chandrasekhar responded to a related question by saying that CERT-In is responsible for tracking and monitoring cyber security occurrences in India. “During the years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 (up to October), a total of 17,560, 24,768, 26,121, and 25,870 Indian websites were hacked,” he stated.

According to Chandrasekhar, there have been attempts to conduct cyber-attacks against Indian cyberspace from time to time. Attackers have been detected compromising computer systems in many regions of the world and concealing the identities of the actual systems from which the attacks are launched using masquerade techniques and hidden servers.

“The Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computers from which the attacks appear to be originated belong to various countries including Algeria, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Netherlands, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, USA, Vietnam, and others,” he added.

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He further mentioned that CERT-In holds regular training sessions for network/system administrators and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of government and critical-sector organisations on securing IT infrastructure and preventing cyber-attacks. “During the years 2020 and 2021 (until October 2021), fifteen (15) and seventeen (17) training programmes were conducted, respectively, with 708 and 4,801 participants,” he stated.

When asked if the government is considering a single cyber security law to address new-age cyber crimes, Chandrasekhar replied no such proposal has been submitted to the Ministry. “As the Internet grows, the government is well aware of cyber security dangers and has built a number of instruments and procedures to address them, including the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team. There is currently no suggestion in the Ministry for a separate law in this area ” he added.

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