The scale of cyber crime in India is rising rapidly, as educated youth gravitate to it.
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- The story: The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) released its latest report "Crime in India 2020", citing unusual trends in crime and law and order in a year when much of the country was in a lockdown for over two months. Cases of cyber crime recorded an 11.8% increase in 2020, a year when most rates of serious crimes fell.
- Types: Cyber crime sections include several types of crimes that are either carried out using or primarily target computer systems or assets linked to the internet, such as internet banking and email accounts. Most cyber crimes came from states such as Telangana and Maharashtra while cases from the top 20 major cities rose by only 0.8%, suggesting more people were being targeted in smaller cities.
- Trends: Overall, the number of cognizable cases rose by 28% but if Covid-related violations were removed, the number of new cases dropped compared to 2019. Some of the stark reductions were in cases of kidnapping and abduction, which fell by 19.3%, crime against women (down by 8.3%), crime against children (down by 13.2%) and crime against senior citizens (down by 10.8%). The murder cases increased by one percent.
- Scale of the problem: Complaints filed under sections dealing with cyber crime saw the number of cases registered last year rose to 50,035 from 44,735 a year before. This ties in with trends seen across the world as more people moved to working and studying from home, spending more time with digital tools.
- The total rate of cyber crime per 100,000 people increased from 3.3 to 3.7 in 2020.
- Experts reckon that the picture provided by NCRB on cyber crime is very limited and cyber frauds have increased in several countries during pandemic.
- The ground reality may be overwhelming, as every second person would have been targeted by a cyber fraudster. The Covid pandemic has turned cyber fraud as a cottage industry, which was once known to be run from Jamtara in Jharkhand, to several other parts of the country.
- The Law: Cyber crime sections include several types of crimes that are either carried out using or primarily target computer systems or assets linked to the internet, such as internet banking and email accounts. State police departments have identified several hotbeds of including Bharatpur in Rajasthan, Deoghar in Jharkhand, Gwalior-Chambal region in Madhya Pradesh, Palgar in Maharashtra and Noida in Uttar Pradesh.
- Rajasthan police opened a dedicated cyber police post in Bharatpur on Rajasthan-Uttar Pradesh border, where police from at least 22 states have visited since January 2021. About 40% of cyber fraud cases reported from Hyderabad was traced to Bharatpur.
- Bharatpur has many cyber frauds gangs are operating from Pahadi and Kaman areas of the district. The area of operation of these people are southern states as they believe that police from those states would not come here tracking them. On average police, from two states come to Bharatpur every week looking for cyber criminals.
- Cyber fraud gangs have also been seen to be increasingly active in Maharashtra and are targeting people in several southern states.
- Jamtara: In Jamtara district of Jharkhand, often considered as the epicentre for cyber fraud, many are regularly arrested and police of many states visits the district often. Cyber fraud has spread from Jamtara to neighbouring Deoghar too. Many educated young people have found cyber fraud as easy way to make money. The spurt in such crimes is now prompting several states to setup dedicated units. Rajasthan has decided to have a cyber police station in every district, Kerala is forming a new cyber police battalion, Telangana has a dedicated cyber crime investigation department, Delhi Police has set up a separate wing for cyber crimes and have a cyber fraud detection unit in every district, and Karnataka has made cyber crime detection training mandatory police personnel in the state.
- MHA's role: The home ministry has a dedicated portal for reporting cyber crime - cybercrime.gov.in. Close to 2,00,000 complaints have been lodged since the portal was launched in January 2020. The department asked all states to registers FIRs on complaints received through this portal. The home ministry needs to look at revamping laws to check rising cyber fraud.
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the cyber fraud challenge to the mission of "Digital India". (2) Suggest ways to wean educated youth away from cyber crimes. (3) What is the scale of cyber crime in India? Explain with facts.
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