School students have been warned against cyberbullying, in the recent safety guidelines published by Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan.

Schools under RMSA has received new guidelines for young netizens to take into account several safety measures when using internet or social networking sites.

The measures range from general instructions such as changing passwords annually to urging students to not tag anyone in social media pictures without permission, warning students against cyberbullying against impersonating as someone else in social media accounts or indulging in plagiarism.

Infact, that the threat of cybercrime is posing a severe concern, the Kolkata Police cyber police station too agrees with India raking third, after United States and China in the last ranking of countries with high risk of cyber threat. West Bengal came eighth in terms of exposure to cyber threat in the country.

“The threat has taken a more organised shape in the recent past as the demography is are undergoing rapid change,” said Mr Vishnu Kumar Bhandari, Standing Committee Chairman on IT and Communication in Merchant Chamber of Commerce addressing a seminar on cybercrime on Friday.

Elucidating on the increasing number of crimes in the country and also in the state, Mr Shantanu Chattopadhyay, officer-in-charge, Kolkata Cyber police station said, “West Bengal witnessed 3.9 per cent of cybercrime incidents in the year 2016. The total number of cases registered in the state under IT Act, IPC and Special Local Laws was 478 against the total figure of 12,317 in the country.”

The vulnerability of Kolkata could be adjudged by a 2010 report when the cyber crime cell was first established. There were only six cases reported from the city which shot up to 156 in the year 2016. According to the Kolkata cyber police station, the highest numbers of malware are attacked through e-mails.

Mr Chattopadhyay said that in every 10 minutes there is a malware attack on some corporate system. In 2017, the global cost of cybercrime estimated was more than 100 billion dollars per year and in the past two years, some of the world’s largest institutions fell prey to cyber crime, he said.

As cybercrime is targeted on corporate sector, benefitting particular perpetrators for creating money, the solution is to secure the entire system including regular audits of database and taking a back up,” added Mr. Chattopadhyay.