Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said that in recent years, there has been an expansion of digital infrastructure in the country, leading to an increase in the number of cyber attacks, with cybercrimes erasing geographical boundaries.
Shah chaired a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs in New Delhi on the topic of ‘Cyber Security and Cyber Crime.’ He rightly observed that ‘cyber crime’ is a ‘borderless’ and ‘formless’ crime, with no limits or fixed form.
He pointed that when looked at from a different perspective, cyberspace constitutes a complex network of ‘software,’ ‘services,’ and ‘users’ and he opines that unless controlling cyber fraud through these factors, it will not be possible to resolve the issues related to the cyberspace.
Shah further mentioned that under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, MHA had taken several significant steps towards making India a cyber-safe nation, adding that efforts were underway to use Artificial Intelligence for identifying mule accounts, in coordination with the Reserve Bank and all other banks, to establish a system for their detection.
He mentioned that the government would ensure the closure of mule accounts before they were even operational.Shah further informed that a total of 1 lakh 43 thousand FIRs had been registered on the I4C portal, and over 19 crore people had used the portal.
From him we come to know that for national security reasons, 805 apps and 3,266 website links have been blocked based on I4C’s recommendations, and additionally, 399 banks and financial intermediaries have come on board.
“Over 6 lakh suspicious data points have been shared, more than 19 lakh mule accounts have been caught, and suspicious transactions worth Rs 2,038 crore have been prevented,” the HM added.
The Home Minister mentioned that the country had witnessed a ‘digital revolution’ over the past decade, and without understanding the size and scale of this, one cannot face the challenges in the cyber domain.
To tackle the challenges of cybercrime, HM said that the government had adopted four types of strategies, which include Convergence, Coordination, Communication, and Capacity, and all of these are being implemented with clear objectives and a strategic approach,
He mentioned that inter-ministerial and inter-departmental coordination within the Ministry of Home Affairs had been strengthened, ensuring seamless communication and smooth flow of information.
Shah also said that Cyber Crime Forensic Training Labs were established in 33 states and union territories.
On the ‘CyTrain’ platform, a “Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)” platform, 101,561 police officers have registered, and over 78,000 certificates have been issued, HM added.