Cyber crime is the new threat to the society, which affects the data privacy of consumers in many ways. To fight with this menace in rural area, where awareness is less regarding this, the central government has taken few initiatives.

In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr. Ajay Kumar Mishra said that the Central Government supplements the initiatives of the States/UTs through advisories and financial assistance under various schemes for capacity building of their LEAs.

‘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).

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The Star of Sikkim

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:

1. 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.
2. 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 LEAs of the States/UTs. Seven workshops were organized for JCCTs at Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Vishakhapatnam, Lucknow, Ranchi and Chandigarh in 2023.
3. 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.
4. 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 LEAs concerned as per the provisions of the law.
5. 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, an 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.
6. 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.
7. Till date more than 2.45 lakhs SIM cards and 42,000 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by Government of India.
8. I4C has imparted cyber hygiene training to 5,600 officials of various Ministries/ Departments of Government of India.
9. 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.
10. 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.
11. I4C has imparted cyber hygiene training to more than 17,000 NCC cadets.
12. 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.
13. The Centre for Financial Literacy pilot project on financial literacy was initiated by the Reserve Bank in 2017 with an objective to adopt community led innovative and participatory approaches to financial literacy engaging various NGOs across the country. Under the Centre for Financial Literacy project, each Centre for Financial Literacy usually covers three blocks while giving focus on the population in the age group of 18-60 years. A total of 1633 Centres for Financial Literacy covering 4,861 blocks have been set up across the country as on September 30, 2023. Awareness about digital banking is one of the areas covered under the Centre for Financial Literacy project.