Lok Sabha Question No. 4576 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-03-30
Subject: Cyber Complaints
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Kalyan Banerjee

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION. NO. 4576

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 30.03.2022

## CYBER COMPLAINTS

## 4576. SHRI KALYAN BANERJEE:

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

- (a) whether the Government is aware of the complaints related to the use of the internet cyber mechanism for software attacks, theft of intellectual property, identity theft, theft of software equipment  or  information,  sabotage,  operational  implementation  and  information  extortion which has surged to very alarming situation;
- (b) if  so,  the  details  thereof;  year-wise  since  2017  including  the  main  five  cyber  complaints registered in India; and
- (c) the details of the action taken to prevent all such electronic frauds and data breaches including the banking system with effective address of the cyber threats and securing electronic devices from malicious attacks thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAJEEV CHANDRASEKHAR)

(a):Government is fully cognizant and aware of increasing number of various cyber security threats. With the borderless cyberspace coupled with the anonymity, along with rapid growth of Internet, rise in cyber security incidents is a global phenomenon.

(b):  Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is mandated to track and monitor cyber security incidents in India. As per CERT-In, a total number of 552, 454, 472, 280 and 523 phishing incidents were observed during the year 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.  Further, a total number of 56, 30, 43, 54 and 132 ransomware incidents were observed during the year 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 respectively.

As per the data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Ministry of Home Affairs, a total of 21796, 27248, 44735, 50035 cybercrime cases were registered during the years 2017, 2018, 2019  and  2020  respectively.  Cyber  Crime  head  wise  data  for  year  2017  to  2020,  as  provided  by NCRB is at annexure I

(c):  'Police'  and  'Public  Order'  are  State  subjects  as  per  the  Constitution  of  India.    The  Law Enforcement  Agencies  (LEAs)  take  legal  action  as  per  provisions  of  law  against  the  cyber-crime offenders.

Government  of  India  has  taken  a  number  of  legal,  technical  and  administrative  measures  to effectively address the cyber threats which, inter alia, include:

- (i) Enactment  of  the  Information  Technology  Act,  2000  which  has  provisions  to  deal  with prevalent cybercrimes.
- (ii) The  Indian  Computer  Emergency  Response  Team  (CERT-In)  issues  alerts  and  advisories regarding  latest  cyber  threats/vulnerabilities  and  countermeasures  to  protect  computers  and networks on regular basis. CERT-In has issued 68 advisories for organisations and users for data security and mitigating fraudulent activities.
- (iii) CERT-In  notifies  the  affected  organizations  along  with  remedial  actions  to  be  taken  on observing the data breach/leakage and ransomware incidents.
- (iv) Government has issued guidelines for Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) regarding their key roles and responsibilities for securing applications / infrastructure and compliance.
- (v) All the government websites and applications are audited with respect to cyber security prior to their hosting.  The auditing of the websites and applications is conducted on a regular basis after hosting also.
- (vi) CERT-In has empanelled 96 security auditing organisations to support and audit implementation of Information Security Best Practices.
- (vii) CERT-In has formulated a Cyber Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber  terrorism  for  implementation  by  all  Ministries/  Departments  of  Central  Government, State Governments and their organizations and critical sectors.
- (viii) Cyber  security  mock  drills  are  conducted  regularly  to  enable  assessment  of  cyber  security posture and preparedness of organisations in Government and critical sectors. 64 such drills have so far been conducted by CERT-In where 820 organizations from different States and sectors participated.
- (ix) CERT-In  conducts  regular  training  programmes  for  network  /  system  administrators  and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of Government and critical sector organisations regarding  securing  the  IT  infrastructure  and  mitigating  cyber  attacks.  15  and  19  training programs were conducted covering 708 and 5169 participants during the year 2020 and 2021 respectively.
- (x) CERT-In  operates  the  Cyber  Swachhta  Kendra  (Botnet  Cleaning  and  Malware  Analysis Centre).  The  centre  provides  detection  of  malicious  programs  and  free  tools  to  remove  the same.
- (xi) CERT-In  provides  the  requisite  leadership  for  the  Computer  Security  Incident  Response Team-Finance Sector (CSIRT-Fin) operations under its umbrella for responding to, containment and mitigation of cyber security incidents reported from the financial sector.
- (xii) CERT-In has set up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational  awareness  of  existing  and  potential  cyber  security  threats.  Phase-I  of  NCCC  is operational.
- (xiii) Ministry  of  Electronics  &  Information  Technology  (MeitY)  conducts  programs  to  generate information security awareness. Specific books, videos and online materials are developed for children, parents and general users about information security which are disseminated through portals like 'www.infosecawareness.in', and 'www.csk.gov.in'.
- (xiv) National  Cyber  Crime  Reporting  Portal,  www.cybercrime.gov.in  launched  by  Ministry  of Home Affairs (MHA) enables citizens to online report complaints pertaining to all types of cybercrimes  with  special  focus  on  cyber  crimes  against  women  and  children.  Complaints reported on this portal are attended by the respective Law Enforcement Authorities of States.
- (xv) To spread awareness on cybercrime, MHA has taken several steps that include dissemination of messages on cybercrime through Twitter handle @cyberDost, radio campaign, Handbook for  Adolescents  /  Students,  Information  Security  Best  practices  for  the  benefit  of  Govt. Officials/  Officers,  cyber  Safety  and  Security  Awareness  weeks,  in  association  with  police department in different States/UTs etc., alerts/advisories on cyber-crimes, capacity building/training  of  law  enforcement  personnel/  prosecutors/  judicial  officers,  improving cyber forensics facilities etc.
- (xvi) Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued various instructions in respect of security and risk mitigation  measures  related  to  electronic/digital  transactions  which  includes  Securing  Card Transactions,  Securing  Payments  through  Internet  Banking  /  Electronic  Payments,  ATM Transactions, Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs), Limiting Customer Liability on Unauthorized Electronic Banking Transactions, Limiting Customer Liability in Unauthorized Electronic  Banking  Transactions  in  PPIs  issued  by  Authorised  Non-banks,  Enhancing Security of Card Transactions etc.

## Annexure I

## Crime Head-wise Cases Registered under Cyber Crimes during 2017-2020

| SL   | Crime Head                                                                     |   2017 |   2018 |   2019 |   2020 |
|------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|--------|--------|--------|
| 1    | Tampering computer source documents                                            |    233 |    257 |    173 |    338 |
| 2    | Computer Related Offences                                                      |  10108 |  14141 |  23734 |  21926 |
| 3    | Cyber Terrorism                                                                |     13 |     21 |     12 |     26 |
| 4    | Publication/transmission of obscene / sexually explicit act in electronic form |   1768 |   3076 |   4203 |   6308 |
| 5    | Interception or Monitoring or decryption of Information                        |      4 |      6 |      9 |      7 |
| 6    | Un-authorized access/attempt to access to protected computer system            |      2 |      0 |      2 |      2 |
| 7    | Abetment to Commit Offences                                                    |      0 |      1 |      0 |      1 |
| 8    | Attempt to Commit Offences                                                     |      4 |     13 |     14 |     18 |
| 9    | Other Sections of IT Act                                                       |   1503 |    980 |   2699 |   1017 |
| A    | Total Offences under I.T. Act                                                  |  13635 |  18495 |  30846 |  29643 |
| 10   | Abetment of Suicide (Online)                                                   |      0 |      7 |      7 |     10 |
| 11   | Cyber Stalking/Bullying of Women/Children                                      |    542 |    739 |    771 |    872 |
| 12   | Data theft                                                                     |    307 |    106 |    282 |     98 |
| 13   | Fraud                                                                          |   3466 |   3353 |   6229 |  10395 |
| 14   | Cheating                                                                       |   1896 |   2051 |   3367 |   4480 |
| 15   | Forgery                                                                        |     99 |    260 |    511 |    582 |
| 16   | Defamation/Morphing                                                            |     12 |     18 |     19 |     51 |
| 17   | Fake Profile                                                                   |     86 |     78 |     85 |    149 |
| 18   | Counterfeiting                                                                 |      1 |      2 |      5 |      9 |
| 19   | Cyber Blackmailing/Threatening                                                 |    311 |    223 |    362 |    303 |
| 20   | Fake News on Social Media                                                      |    170 |     97 |    188 |    578 |
| 21   | Other Offences                                                                 |   1086 |   1713 |   1974 |   2674 |
| B    | Total Offences under IPC                                                       |   7976 |   8647 |  13800 |  20201 |
| 22   | Gambling Act (Online Gambling)                                                 |     45 |     20 |     22 |     63 |
| 23   | Lotteries Act (Online Lotteries)                                               |     11 |      2 |      9 |     26 |
| 24   | Copy Right Act                                                                 |     89 |     62 |     34 |     49 |
| 25   | Trade Marks Act                                                                |     11 |      0 |      1 |      5 |
| 26   | Other SLL Crimes                                                               |     29 |     22 |     23 |     48 |
| C    | Total Offences under SLL                                                       |    185 |    106 |     89 |    191 |
|      | Total Cyber Crimes (A+B+C)                                                     |  21796 |  27248 |  44735 |  50035 |