Lok Sabha Question No. 3357 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-03-22
Subject: Efforts to Increase Online Transactions
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: DODDAALAHALLI KEMPEGOWDA SURESH, B.N. CHANDRAPPA

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3357

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 22.03.2017

## EFFORTS TO INCREASE ONLINE TRANSACTIONS

## 3357 SHRI D.K. SURESH: SHRI B.N. CHANDRAPPA:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state: -

- (a) whether the Government is aware that the consumer does not browse the Internet due to consequent hassles of connectivity and other bothering;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the steps being taken by the Government in this regard;
- (c) the number of people making electronic payment through credit card, plastic money etc., in the country as on date;
- (d) whether the Government is aware that electronic payment is not so popular in the country due to increasing threat of fraud played by hackers; and
- (e) if so, the steps being taken to prevent fraud and infuse confidence among people to use electronic payment?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

(a) and (b):  As  per  the  TRAI  data  there  is  a  trend  of  growth  of  Internet  subscribers.  The number of  Internet subscriber base at the end of September 2016 was 367.48 million & total No. of Internet subscriber base at the end of December 2016 was 391.50 million, which shows that there is addition of 24.02 million or 240.2 Lakhs internet subscribers in the country) during this period. Hence connectivity does not seems to be a issue for browsing internet.

- (c):    As per the RBI data, the total number of credit cards available at the end of January 2017 is 2,88,45,858 and 11,32,43,193 transactions at ATM & POS have been done by these cards in January  2017.  Also,  81,79,79,145 debit  cards are  available  at  the  end  of  January  2017  and 104,09,70,708 transactions at ATM & POS have been done by these cards in January 2017.
- (d)  and  (e):  The  data  received  from  RBI  shows  only  few  cases  for  unusual  cyber  security incidents reported, which shows that electronic payment is popular in the country.

RBI data : As of February 28, 2017, the details of the incidents reported by bank (since issuance of  RBI  circular  No.  DBS.CO/CSITE/BC.11/33.01.001/2015-16  dated  June  2,  2016  on  Cyber Security  Framework  in  Banks,  wherein  banks  have  been  advised  to  report  all  unusual  cyber security incidents to RBI within 2 - 6 hours of detection) as given under:

|   Sl No | Type of Incidents                    |   Total no of incidents reported |
|---------|--------------------------------------|----------------------------------|
|       1 | Ransom ware                          |                                7 |
|       2 | Distributed Denial of Service (DDos) |                                2 |
|       3 | Phishing Attacks                     |                                6 |
|       4 | Rogue Mobile Application             |                                6 |
|       5 | Card Skimming                        |                                3 |
|       6 | Virus/Malware                        |                               13 |

Further, the details of frauds related to Credit/ ATM / Debit cards & Net Banking reported by banks during last three years and current year (From April 01, 2013 to December 31, 2016) and extent of losses occurred due to such incident is as given below:

| (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   | (i) Details of frauds reported in Credit Cards/ ATM/Debit Cards and Internet Banking Categories (Amount in Lakh ` )   |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Financial Year                                                                                                        | Credit Cards                                                                                                          | Credit Cards                                                                                                          | ATM/ Debit Cards                                                                                                      | ATM/ Debit Cards                                                                                                      | Internet Banking                                                                                                      | Internet Banking                                                                                                      | Total (All three categories)                                                                                          | Total (All three categories)                                                                                          |
| Financial Year                                                                                                        | No. of Frauds                                                                                                         | Amount                                                                                                                | No. of Frauds                                                                                                         | Amount                                                                                                                | No. of Frauds                                                                                                         | Amount                                                                                                                | No. of Frauds                                                                                                         | Amount                                                                                                                |
| 2013-14                                                                                                               | 7890                                                                                                                  | 5481.59                                                                                                               | 1307                                                                                                                  | 823.17                                                                                                                | 303                                                                                                                   | 1495.83                                                                                                               | 9500                                                                                                                  | 7800.59                                                                                                               |
| 2014-15                                                                                                               | 10382                                                                                                                 | 4231.97                                                                                                               | 2498                                                                                                                  | 1385.98                                                                                                               | 203                                                                                                                   | 2445.8                                                                                                                | 13083                                                                                                                 | 8063.75                                                                                                               |
| 2015-16                                                                                                               | 9849                                                                                                                  | 4597.79                                                                                                               | 6585                                                                                                                  | 3126.85                                                                                                               | 34                                                                                                                    | 175.31                                                                                                                | 16468                                                                                                                 | 7899.95                                                                                                               |
| June, September, December Quarter 2016                                                                                | 4557                                                                                                                  | 2156.78                                                                                                               | 4064                                                                                                                  | 1900.8                                                                                                                | 68                                                                                                                    | 158.18                                                                                                                | 8689                                                                                                                  | 4215.76                                                                                                               |

Source: FMR2 submitted by banks (All Frauds - including amount involving below ₹1.00 Lakh)

- (ii) Credit cards/ATM/Debit cards & internet banking categories, Fraud cases of Rs1 lakh and above and Extent of loss incurred

| Amount in Lakh ( ` ) - Source: FMR1   | Amount in Lakh ( ` ) - Source: FMR1   | Amount in Lakh ( ` ) - Source: FMR1   | Amount in Lakh ( ` ) - Source: FMR1   |
|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
| Financial Year                        | No. of cases reported                 | Total Amount involved                 | Extent of Loss to banks               |
| 2013-14                               | 978                                   | 5451.77                               | 3225.31                               |
| 2014-15                               | 845                                   | 5169                                  | 1848.5                                |
| 2015-16                               | 1190                                  | 4019.12                               | 2702.26                               |

| June, September &December Quarter 2016   |   1081 |   3501.88 |   2635.43 |
|------------------------------------------|--------|-----------|-----------|
| Total                                    |   4094 |   18141.8 |   10411.5 |

Further  the  Government  has  taken  the  following  steps  to  prevent  fraud  and  infuse  confidence among people to use electronic payments:

- i. All authorised entities/banks issuing Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) in the country have been advised by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) through the Reserve Bank of India to carry out audit by the empanelled auditors of CERT-In on a priority basis and take immediate steps thereafter to comply with the findings of the audit report and ensure implementation of security best practices.
- ii. All organizations providing digital payment services have been mandated to report cyber security incidents to CERT-In expeditiously.
- iii. Government has formulated Cyber Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks for implementation  by  all Ministries/ Departments  of Central Government,  State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors.
- iv. Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security  posture  and  preparedness  of  organizations  in  Government  and  critical  sectors. Till  date,  11  such  drills  have  been  conducted  by  the  Indian  Computer  Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) involving 110 organisations from different sectors including Finance sector. The last drill was conducted on 30 th September 2016 in coordination with Reserve Bank of India for Finance Sector.
- v. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts and advisories regarding  latest  cyber  threats/vulnerabilities  and  countermeasures  to  protect  computers and  mobile  phones  on  regular  basis.  21  advisories  have  also  been  issued  regarding safeguards for users and institutions to secure digital payments.
- vi. It has been mandated that all government websites should be hosted on infrastructure of National Informatics Centre (NIC) or any other secured government infrastructure in the country. NIC which hosts the government websites is continuously engaged in upgrading and improving the security posture of its hosting infrastructure.
- vii. All the new government websites and applications are to be audited with respect to cyber security  prior  to  their  hosting.    The  auditing  of  the  websites  and  applications  will  be conducted  on  a  regular  basis  after  hosting  also.  The  Indian  Computer  Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has empanelled 32 security auditing organizations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- viii. CERT-In  is  regularly  tracking  the  hacking  of  websites  and  alerts  the  website  owners concerned  to  take  actions  to  secure  the  websites  to  prevent  recurrence.  CERT-In  also issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats and countermeasures on regular basis.
- ix. Government has launched the Cyber Swachhta  Kendra (Botnet  Cleaning  and  Malware Analysis Centre). The centre is providing detection of malicious programs and free tools to remove the same for common users.
- x. MeitY has formulated draft rules for security of pre-paid payment instruments. The draft rules have been published on MeitY website inviting public comments.
- xi. The  IT  Act,  2000  provides  a  comprehensive  legal  framework  to  address  the  issues connected  with cyber crime, cyber attacks and security breaches of information technology infrastructure.
- xii. Ministry  of  Electronics  &  Information  Technology  (MeitY)  has  recently  notified  the scheme for evaluating any Department, body or agency of the Central Government or a State Government to notify them as Examiner of Electronic Evidence under section 79A of IT Act, 2000.
- xiii. CERT-In  is  conducting  cyber  security  trainings  for  IT  /  cyber  security  professionals including Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of Government and critical sector organisations.  18  such  training  programs  were  conducted  covering  580  participants during the year 2016. In addition 2 workshops on security of digital payments systems have been conducted for stakeholder organisations covering 110 participants.
- xiv. Cyber Crime Cells have been set up in all States and Union Territories for reporting and investigation of cyber crime cases.
- xv. With respect to the banking sector, in order to focus more attention on IT related matters, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has taken various action which includes :
- a. RBI  has  set  up  a  Cyber  Security  and  IT  Examination  (CSITE)  cell  within  its Department of Banking Supervision in 2015.
- b. The Bank has issued a comprehensive circular on Cyber Security Framework in Banks on June 2,  2016 covering  best  practices  pertaining  to  various  aspects  of cyber security.
- c. RBI  carries  out  IT  Examination  of  banks  separately  from  the  regular  financial examination of banks from last year. This examination report has a special focus on cyber security. The reports have been issued to the banks for remedial action.
- d. RBI  has  also  set  up  Cyber  Crisis  Management  Group  to  address  any  major incidents reported including suggesting ways to respond and recover to/ from the incidents.
- e. Department  of  Banking  Supervision  under  RBI  also  conducts  cyber  security preparedness testing among banks on the basis of hypothetical scenarios with the help of CERT-In.
- f. RBI also has set up an IT subsidiary, which would focus, among other things, on cyber security within RBI as well as in regulated entities.
- g. RBI has issued circular on 09 th December 2016 in Security and Risk mitigation measure  for  all  authorised  entities  /  banks  issuing  Prepaid  Payment  Instrument (PPI) in the country.
- h. In addition, RBI issues Circulars/advisories to all Commercial Banks on phishing attacks and preventive / detective measures to tackle phishing attacks.
- xvi. RBI vide Circular No. DBS.CO.ITC.BC.No. 6 /31.02.008/2010-11  dated April 29, 2011 indicated  that  banks  may  consider  insurance  to  transfer  risk  to  a  third  party,  however taking due care regarding certainty of payments in the event of disruptions.
- xvii. RBI vide circular No. DBS.CO/CSITE/BC.11/33.01.001/2015-16 dated June 2, 2016 on Cyber Security Framework in Banks, banks have been advised to report all unusual cyber security incidents to RBI within 2 - 6 hours of detection.

********