Lok Sabha Question No. 2986 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-08-06
Subject: Cyber Awareness Camps
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Dr. C N Manjunath

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2986

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 06.08.2025

## CYBER AWARENESS CAMPS

## 2986.   DR. C N MANJUNATH:

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

- (a) whether the Government is providing any support to prevent online frauds, phishing attacks and financial scams affecting rural internet users including those in the Bengaluru Rural Parliamentary Constituency and if so, the details thereof;
- (b)  whether  any  cyber  awareness  camps  or  grievance  redressal  training  has  been  conducted  in partnership with the State police or the district administration, if so, the details thereof; and
- (c)  whether  the  Government  proposes  to  launch  a  localised  public  awareness  campaign  on  cyber hygiene in regional languages?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA)

(a) to (c): The Government has taken several initiatives for prevention of cyber frauds and promotion of cyber security awareness, with the objective of ensuring an Open, Safe, Trusted, and Accountable Internet for all users. Government remains cognizant and aware of cyber threats and challenges. The Government has taken the following key initiatives:

- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is implementing a project on 'Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA)' for generating human resources in the area  of  Information  Security  and  creating  general  awareness  on  various  aspects  of  cyber hygiene/cyber  security  among  the  masses.  Under  the  awareness  component,  24  awareness workshops have been organized in Bengaluru Rural constituency covering 1,644 participants. Multilingual Awareness material in the form of handbooks, short videos, posters, brochures, cartoon  stories  for  children,  advisories,  etc.  on  various  aspects  of  cyber  hygiene  &  cyber security are disseminated through these awareness workshops and portals such as www.staysafeonline.in, and www.csk.gov.in.
- Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology observes the Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) during October every year, Safer Internet Day on 2 nd Tuesday of February every year, Swachhta Pakhwada from 1 st to 15 th February of every year and Cyber Jagrookta Diwas (CJD) on 1 st Wednesday of every month by organising various events and activities for citizens as well as the technical cyber community in India.
- CERT-In issues alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities including social engineering, phishing and vishing campaigns and countermeasures to protect computers, mobile phones, networks and data on an ongoing basis.
- CERT-In publishes Security tips for users to secure their desktops and mobile phones and to prevent phishing attacks.
- CERT-In is working in coordination with service providers, regulators and Law Enforcement Agencies  (LEAs)  to  track  and  disable  phishing  websites  and  facilitate  investigation  of fraudulent activities.
- Cyber  Swachhta  Kendra  (CSK)  is  a  citizen-centric  service  provided  by  CERT-In,  which extends the vision of Swachh Bharat to the cyber space. Cyber Swachhta Kendra is the Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre and helps 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.
- CERT-In  has  organized  awareness  programs  to  educate  the  users  on  cyber  security  best practices and measures that can be taken against the phishing and cyber fraud campaigns.
- CERT-In  is  regularly  sharing  safety  and  security  tips,  awareness  posters,  info-graphics, booklets and videos through its official websites and social media handles such as Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn for sensitizing internet users on cyber security attacks and frauds and prevention measures
- Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has set up the 'Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre' (I4C) as an attached office to deal with all types of cybercrimes in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
- To  spread  awareness  on  cybercrime,  the  MHA  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), SMS campaign, TV campaign, Radio campaign, School Campaign, advertisement in cinema halls, celebrity endorsement, IPL campaign, campaign during Kumbh Mela 2025, Mann Ki Baat, caller tune, 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, newspaper advertisement on digital arrest scam,  announcement  in  Delhi  metros  on  digital  arrest  and  other  modus  operandi  of  cyber criminals,  use  of  social  media  influencers  to  create  special  posts  on  digital  arrest,  digital displays on railway stations and airports across, etc.
- I4C is collaboration with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched a caller tune  campaign  with  effect  from  19.12.2024  for  raising  awareness  about  cybercrime  and promoting the Cybercrime Helpline Number 1930 & NCRP portal.
- Department of Telecommunications (DoT) through its AI and Facial Recognition powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification (ASTR) tool detects mobile connections that were acquired through forged documents.
- DoT  has  developed  an  online  secure  Digital  Intelligence  Platform  (DIP)  for  sharing  of information related to misuse of telecom resources among the stakeholders. DoT and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system called Centralised International Outroamer Register (CIOR) to identify and block incoming international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers.
- DoT has also evolved the ecosystem for curbing misuse of telecom resources through enhanced capacity building of human resource skill set and by development of AI & big data analytics tools, inter-alia, including ASTR, CIOR and DIP. Further, Sanchar Saathi, a citizen centric initiative  has  been  launched  which  is  accessible  through  web  portal  &  mobile  App  and facilitates citizens to report suspected fraud communications, to know mobile connections in their name, to report lost/ stolen mobile handsets etc. In addition, Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) has been developed which is a risk-based metric that classifies a mobile number to have been  associated  with  Medium,  High,  or  Very  Highrisk  of  financial  fraud.  FRI  empowers stakeholders-especially  banks,  Non-Banking  Financial  Companies  (NBFC),  and  Unified
- Payments  Interface  (UPI)  service  providers  to  prioritize  enforcement  and  take  additional customer protection measures in case a mobile number has high risk.
- RBI  and  banks  have  also  been  taking  up  awareness  campaigns  through  short  SMS,  radio campaign, publicity on prevention of 'cyber -crime' etc. RBI has further launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tool 'Mule Hunter' for identification of money mule a nd advised the banks and financial institutions for its uses.
- Additionally, NPCI provides a fraud monitoring solution to all the banks to generate alerts and decline transactions by using AI/ ML based models.

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