Lok Sabha Question No. 2576 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-19
Subject: Cyber Crime Awareness
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Margani Bharat

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2576

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 19 TH  DECEMBER, 2023/ AGRAHAYANA 28, 1945 (SAKA)

CYBER CRIME AWARENESS

2576. SHRI MARGANI BHARAT:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) the details of any national campaigns or initiatives aimed at promoting cyber crime awareness among citizens;

(b)  the  measures  taken  by  the  Government  to  equip  law  enforcement agencies  with  the  necessary  skills  and  resources  to  effectively  combat cyber crime and any recent training programmes implemented;

- (c) the investments made in technology infrastructure and cyber security tools to strengthen the nation's overall cyber resilience; and

(d)  whether any assessment has been conducted on the impact of these initiatives on the reduction of cyber crime incidents and if so, the details thereof?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI AJAY KUMAR MISHRA)

(a) to (d): '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). The Central Government  supplements  the  initiatives of the States/UTs  through  advisories  and  financial  assistance  under  various schemes for their capacity building of their 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) to deal with all types of cyber crime in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
- ii. 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 in 2023.
- iii. 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)  have  provided  its  services  to

State  LEAs  in  around  8,840  cyber  forensics  like  mobile  forensics, memory forensics, CDR Analysis, etc. to help them in investigation of cases pertaining to cyber crimes.

- iv. 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 conversion into FIRs and subsequent action thereon are handled by the  State/UT  Law  Enforcement  Agencies  concerned  as  per  the provisions of the law.
- v. The  'Citizen  Financial  Cyber  Fraud  Reporting  and  Management System',  under  I4C,  has  been  launched  for  immediate  reporting  of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters. So far, financial amount of more than Rs. 1000 Crore have been saved in more  than  4  lakh  incidents.  A  toll-free  Helpline  number  '1930'  has been  operationalized  to  get  assistance  in  lodging  online  cyber incidents.
- vi. 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. along with

certification.  More  than 72,800 Police Officers from States/UTs are registered  and  more  than  50,000  Certificates  issued  through  the portal.

- vii. I4C has imparted cyber hygiene training to 5,600 officials of various Ministries/ Departments of Government of India.
- viii. I4C  has  imparted  cyber  hygiene  training  to  more  than  17,000  NCC cadets.
- ix. The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 122.24 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.  So  far,  cyber forensic-cum-training  laboratories  have  been  commissioned  in  33 States/UTs. So far, more than 24,600 LEA personnel, judicial officers and prosecutors have been provided training on cyber crime awareness, investigation, forensics etc.
- x. 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.

- xi. 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,  etc.  The  States/UTs  have  also been requested to carry out publicity to create mass awareness.
- xii. The  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  conducts programmes  to  generate  information  security  awareness.  Books, videos and online materials about information security are developed for general users, children  and  parents,  and  are  disseminated through portals such as www.infosecawareness.in and www.csk.gov.in
- xiii. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology initiated the Cyber Surakshit Bharat (CSB) programme in public-private partnership  to  educate  &  enable  the  Chief  Information  Security Officers (CISOs) & broader IT community in Central/State Governments, Banks, PSUs and Government organizations to address the challenges of cyber security.

The training programmes are conducted in cities like Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Chandigarh, Bhopal, etc.

- xiv. The  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  conducts online awareness level and advanced level training courses in cyber security  for  officials  of  Central  Government  Ministries/Departments to create awareness about cyber security in Government employees.
- xv. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (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 42 training programmes have been conducted, covering 11,486 participants, during the years 2021 and  2022.  In  2023,  up  to  October,  a  total  of  7007  officials  from Government,  critical  sectors,  public  and  private  sector  have  been trained in 21 training programs in the area of cyber security.
- xvi. CERT-In regularly disseminates information and shares security tips on cyber safety and security through its official social media handles and  websites.  CERT-In  organised  various  events  and  activities  for citizens  during  Safer  Internet  Day  on  7.2.2023  and  Cyber  Security Awareness  Month  in  October  2023,  by  posting  security  tips  using posters and videos on social media platforms and websites.

CERT-In,  in  association  with  Centre  for  Development  of  Advanced Computing,  conducted  an  online  awareness  campaign  for  citizens, covering topics such as general online safety, social media risks and safety,  mobile  related  frauds  and  safety,  secure  digital  payment practices, etc., through videos and quizzes on the My Gov platform.

- xvii. CERT-In and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) jointly carry out a cyber security awareness campaign on 'beware and be aware of financial frauds' through the Digital India Platform.
- xviii. 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.
- xix. 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.
- xx. 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.

- CERT-In  has  empanelled  177  security  auditing  organisations  to Security  Best
- xxi. support  and  audit  implementation  of  Information Practices.
- xxii. Cyber security mock drills are being conducted regularly to enable assessment of cyber security posture and preparedness of organisations in Government and critical sectors. 86 such drills have so  far  been  conducted  by  CERT-In  where  1159  organizations  from different States and sectors participated.
- xxiii. 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 42 training programmes  have  been  conducted,  covering  11,486  participants, during  the  years  2021  and  2022.  In  2023,  up  to  October,  a  total  of 7007 officials  from  Government,  critical  sectors,  public  and  private sector have been trained in 21 training programs in the area of cyber security.
- xxiv. CERT-In has set up the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC) to generate necessary situational awareness of existing and potential cyber security threats.

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