NEW DELHI : With nearly 40 per cent annual increase in cyber crimes, government has set up an expert group to chalk out strategies for effective tackling of the menace.
The five-member expert study group will prepare a roadmap for effectively tackling cyber crime in the country and give suitable recommendations on all its facets.
India with a fast growing economy is susceptible to international and domestic cyber attacks and there is a need to ensure cyber crime-free environment.
There has been almost 40 per cent annual increase in cyber crimes registered in the country during the past two-three years, a Home Ministry official said.
The terms of reference of the expert group include to recommend possible partnerships with public and private sector, NGOs, international bodies and international NGOs besides any other special measures or steps the the group may like to recommend with regard to tackling cyber crimes.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the setting up of the expert group consisting of academicians and professionals of repute to prepare the roadmap in order to comprehensively address the issues of cyber crimes.
The Home Minister told Parliament recently that there was a need to strengthen cyber monitoring in the wake of growing use of internet and social media by global terror outfits like ISIS to indoctrinate the youth.
Singh was responding to concerns raised by MPs in the wake of arrest of Bangalore professional Mehdi Masroor Biswas for operating a pro-ISIS Twitter account.
Arif Majid, one of the Mumbai youths, who had gone to the ISIS-controlled territories in Iraq and Syria, told police after his return that they were indoctrinated to extremist ideology through internet contents.
The CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team), the apex cyber security division under the Ministry of Information Technology, has found that cyber crime in the country has accelerated about 50 times since 2004.
The CERT has recorded just 23 cyber crime incidents in 2004 in contrast to a huge 1,237 in 2007. The CERT, which also tracks website defacement, has found 5,863 websites in the country that underwent mutilation by global hackers in 2007.
The agency also found 1,805 ‘open proxy’ servers that allow anonymous browsing. From January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008, the Internet Crime Complaint Centre website received 2,75,284 complaints. There is 33.1 per cent increase when compared to 2007 when 2,06,884 complaints were received.
Obscene publication, transmission of unauthorised contents, credit card and banking sector frauds are the widespread cyber crime faced worldwide.
The five-member expert study group comprises of Rajat Moona, Director General CDAC, Pune, Professor Krishnan, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Gulshan Rai, Director General CERT, Manindra Aggarwal, Professor Computer Science, IIT, Kanpur and D Dass, Professor IIIT, Bengaluru. Kumar Alok, Joint Secretary (Centre State), in the Home Ministry will be the convener. (AGENCIES)
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