Lok Sabha Question No. 204 (STARRED), answered on 2024-12-10
Subject: Prevention of Cyber Attacks and Cyber Crimes
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Shri Eswarasamy K

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *204

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 10 TH  DECEMBER, 2024/ AGRAHAYANA 19, 1946 (SAKA)

PREVENTION OF CYBER ATTACKS AND CYBER CRIMES

*204.      SHRI ESWARASAMY K:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Union Government is considering to contain cyber attacks, hacking and many other computer based crimes with the help of other countries;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the steps taken or proposed to be taken against cyber crime in the country; and
- (c)  whether  the  Government  plans  to  train  the  police  personnel  in  the country  with  the  help  of  any  security  agencies  and  if  so,  the  details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI NITYANAND RAI)

(a) to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## L.S.S.Q.NO. *204 FOR 10.12.2024

STATEMENT IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) to (c) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *204 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10.12.2024.

(a) to (c): 'Police' and 'Public Order' are State subjects as per the Seventh Schedule  of  the  Constitution  of  India.  The  States/UTs  are  primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes  including  cyber  crime through  their  Law  Enforcement  Agencies (LEAs).

To  strengthen  the  mechanism  to  deal  with  cyber  crimes  in  a comprehensive  and  coordinated  manner,  the  Central  Government  has taken steps which, inter-alia, include the following:

- i. The  Ministry  of  Home  Affairs  has  set  up  the  'Indian  Cyber  Crime Coordination Centre' (I4C) as an attached office to deal with all types of cyber crimes in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
- ii. The  Central  Bureau  of  Investigation  (CBI)  participates  in  various regional and international cyber crime cooperation initiatives led by Interpol, fostering collaboration with global LEAs to address crossborder cyber crime challenges.

- iii. The  CBI  serves  as  the  nodal  point  in  India  for  data  preservation requests, sending and receiving such requests through the G7 24/7 network to ensure the timely and secure exchange of cyber crime related data.
- iv. The  National  Central  Bureau  (NCB)  in  CBI  acts  as  a  central coordination agency, facilitating the collection and dissemination of cyber crime information through Interpol channels.
- v. The  Indian  Computer  Emergency  Response  Team  (CERT-In)  is operating an automated cyber threat exchange platform for proactively  collecting,  analysing  and  sharing  tailored  alerts  with organisations across sectors for proactive threat mitigation actions by them.
- vi. CERT-In has set up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber security threats.
- vii. CERT-In operates the Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) to detect malicious programs and provides free tools to remove the same, and also provides cyber security tips and best practices for citizens and organisations.

- viii. Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations  in  Government  and  critical  sectors.  104  such  drills have  so far  been  conducted  by  CERT-In  where  around 1450 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.    A  total  of  32,075 officials  have  been  trained  in  103  training  programs  upto  October 2024.
- x. The Central Government has launched a comprehensive awareness programme  on  digital arrest scams  which, inter-alia, include; newspaper  advertisement,  announcement  in  Delhi  Metros,  use  of social media influencers to create special posts, campaign through Prasar Bharti and electronic media, special programme on Aakashvani  and  participated  in  Raahgiri  Function  at  Connaught Place, New Delhi on 27.11.2024.
- xi. I4C proactively identify and blocked more than 1700 Skype IDs and 59,000 Whatsapp accounts used for Digital Arrest.

## L.S.S.Q.NO. *204 FOR 10.12.2024

- xii. The  Central  Government  has  published  a  Press  Release  on  Alert against incidents of 'Blackmail' and 'Digital Arrest' by Cyber Criminals Impersonating  State/UT  Police,  NCB,  CBI,  RBI  and  other  Law Enforcement Agencies.
- xiii. A State of the Art Centre, Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) has been  established  at  I4C  where  representatives  of  major  banks, Financial  Intermediaries,  Payment  Aggregators,  Telecom  Service Providers, IT Intermediaries and representatives of States/UTs Law Enforcement Agency are working together for immediate action and seamless cooperation to tackle cybercrime has led to debit freeze of 8.6 lakhs Mule accounts by various Banks and response time of banks has also decreased.
- xiv. Till 15.11.2024, more than 6.69 lakhs SIM cards and 1,32,000 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by Government of India.
- xv. The 'National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal' (https://cybercrime.gov.in) has been launched, as a part of the I4C, to enable  public  to  report  incidents  pertaining  to  all  types  of  cyber crimes,  with  special  focus  on  cyber  crimes  against  women  and children.  Cyber  crime   incidents   reported   on   this   portal,   their

## L.S.S.Q.NO. *204 FOR 10.12.2024

conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the  State/UT  Law  Enforcement  Agencies  concerned  as  per  the provisions of the law.

- xvi. The  'Citizen  Financial  Cyber  Fraud  Reporting  and  Management System', under I4C, has been launched in year 2021 for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters. A toll-free Helpline number '1930' has been operationalized to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints. So far, financial amount of more than Rs. 3431 Crore has been saved in more than 9.94 lakh complaints.

A Suspect Registry of identifiers of cyber criminals has been launched by I4C on 10.09.2024 in collaboration with Banks/Financial Institutions  which  has  led  to  declining  of  more  than  5.6  lakhs fradulant transactions and saving more than Rs. 1400 Crore. These initiatives have saved more than 4800 Crores.

- xvii. The  Central  Government  has  introduced  a  new  feature  titled  as 'Report and Check Suspect' on https://cybercrime.gov.in. This facility provides  citizens  a  search  option  to  search  I4C's  repository  of identifiers of cyber criminals through 'Suspect Search'.

## L.S.S.Q.NO. *204 FOR 10.12.2024

- xviii. Samanvaya  Platform  has  been  made  operational  to  serve  as  an Management Information System(MIS) platform, data repository and a  coordination  platform  for  LEAs  for  cybercrime  data  sharing  and analytics. It provides analytics based interstate linkages of crimes and criminals, involved in cybercrime complaints in various States/UTs. The module 'Pratibimb' maps locations of criminals and crime  infrastructure  on  a  map  to  give  visibility  to  jurisdictional officers. The module also facilitates seeking and receiving of technolegal assistance by Law Enforcement  Agencies from I4C and other SMEs.
- xix. Seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams (JCCTs) have been constituted for Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Vishakhapatnam, and Guwahati under I4C covering the whole country based upon cyber crime hotspots/ areas having multi jurisdictional  issues  by  on  boarding  States/UTs  to  enhance  the coordination framework among the Law Enforcement Agencies of the States/UTs. Seven workshops were organized for JCCTs at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow, Ranchi and Chandigarh.

- xx. The state of the art 'National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Investigation)' has been established, as a part of the I4C, at New Delhi to provide early stage cyber forensic assistance to Investigating Officers (IOs) of State/UT Police. So far, National Cyber Forensics  Laboratory  (Investigation)  has  provided  its  services  to State/UT LEAs in around 11,203 cases pertaining to cyber crimes.
- xxi. The Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) platform, namely 'CyTrain' portal has been developed under I4C, for capacity building of police officers/judicial officers through online course on critical aspects of cyber  crime  investigation,  forensics,  prosecution  etc.  More  than 98,698 Police Officers from States/UTs are registered and more than 75,591 Certificates issued through the portal.
- xxii. National Cyber Forensic Laboratory (Evidence) has been set up at Hyderabad. Establishment of this laboratory provides the necessary forensic  support  in  cases  of  evidence  related  to  cyber  crime, preserving the evidence and its analysis in line with the provisions of IT Act and Evidence Act; and reduced turnaround time.

## L.S.S.Q.NO. *204 FOR 10.12.2024

- xxiii. The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 131.60 crores under the 'Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)' Scheme, to the States/UTs for their capacity building such as setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, hiring of junior cyber consultants and training of LEAs' personnel, public prosecutors and judicial officers. Cyber forensiccum-training laboratories have been commissioned in 33 States/UTs and more than 24,600 LEA personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc.
- xxiv. I4C has imparted cyber hygiene training to 7,330 officials of various Ministries/ Departments of Government of India.
- xxv. I4C  has  imparted  cyber  hygiene  training  to  more  than  40,151 and 53,022 NCC cadets and NSS cadets respectively.
- xxvi. 891 Judicial Officers, 395 Public Prosecutors, 12 Forensics Experts and 2180 LEAs have been trained by I4C in matters of cyber crime prevention, awareness, investigation forensics, etc.

## L.S.S.Q.NO. *204 FOR 10.12.2024

- xxvii. To spread awareness on cyber crime, the Central Government has taken  steps  which,  inter-alia,  include;  dissemination  of  messages through  SMS,  I4C  social  media  account  i.e.  X  (formerly  Twitter) (@CyberDost),  Facebook(CyberDostI4C),  Instagram  (cyberDostI4C), Telegram(cyberdosti4c), Radio campaign, engaged MyGov for publicity in multiple mediums, organizing Cyber Safety and Security Awareness  weeks  in  association  with  States/UTs,  publishing  of Handbook  for  Adolescents/Students,  digital  displays  on  railway stations and airports across, etc.

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