By Vritika Mathur
In the modern world, cybercrime poses to be a major threat that continues to exploit industries around the country. It includes different attacks such as phishing, scanning, probing, virus, defacement and so on. With its rapid evolvement, there has been an urgent need to address the issue. According to an interview conducted by KPMG in 2017, Additional Commissioner of Police Hari Kishore Kusumakar stated there has been more than a 50 percent increase in reported cybercrime, as compared to the year before.
The announcement of a new scheme
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently announced its decision in the Lok Sabha to train 27,500 police personnel to curb cyber crimes against women and children all over the country. According to Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, “Ministry of Home Affairs is implementing Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children scheme in the period 2017-2020 which aims to train 27,500 police personnel across the country in the cyber domain. In light of the spread of the blue whale challenge game, the centre had directed all state governments to focus on the situation arising, i.e. multiple children committing suicide. The Minister gave a written reply emphasising that public and police order are state subjects while prevention, detection, investigation of crime including capacity building of police personnel is to be considered the state’s responsibility. He said, “Various steps are taken by MHA as well as states to modernise the preventive set up and equip police personnel with knowledge and skills for prevention and control of crime.
Training is to be given to law enforcement personnel regularly and through multiple national and state institutions and academies. The funding for this entire scheme comes from the Nirbhaya fund for the period 2017-2020. Its primary goal is to set up a platform online where individuals can report cybercrime, that would include complaints regarding child pornography and consequently its removal. This would be done in coordination with the concerned ministries. The MHA has issued an advisory to all state governments on steps to check phone frauds. Minister Ahir stated, “The Ministry has recently set up a Cyber and Information Security Division to look into matters relating to cybercrime and information security etc.
Problems with the current scenario
One of the main factors leading to this issue is the lack of awareness surrounding cyber crimes. According to the Cybercrime Survey Report of 2017 conducted by KPMG, only 58 percent of the companies make cybersecurity risks a boardroom agenda. About three percent of organisations are unaware of the proper procedures and the different rules and services provided by the Government of the country. Further, more than half believe them to be inadequate when it comes to handling cybercrime. Similarly, acknowledgement of the same being a significant issue is also important, as, according to expert Mirza Asad, many organisations tend to perceive cybersecurity as a compliance task and thus do the bare minimum required to achieve it.
Organisations are slowly but steadily becoming more aware of the danger, as according to about 51 percent of the organisations, there has been an increase in the budget for cybersecurity as compared to previous years. However, with only a dismal 18 percent of the companies being of the opinion that they are fully prepared to counter any cyber attack, risk management strategies still have a long way to go.
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