Govt to set up apex cyber crime coordination centre

New Delhi:  To deal with cyber crimes such as financial frauds, circulation of communal and pornographic contents, the Union Home Ministry is planning to set up an apex coordination centre and has asked states to establish a similar mechanism in every district.

It has also released Rs 83 crore for setting up of a cyber forensic training laboratory-cum-training centre for police officials in each state. The funds were given under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children Scheme, a Home ministry official told PTI.

The apex centre — Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) — would be set up in Delhi. It would coordinate with state governments and union territories, and closely monitor the cyber space and social media with due emphasis on vernacular content.

The centre would also block those websites which flout India’s laws and circulate child porn, and communally and racially sensitive content. The official, requesting anonymity, said that the centre would maintain a list of suspects and the leads generated during investigations in cyber crime cases would be shared with law enforcement agencies through a “secured internal network”.

State governments have also been asked to set up a state cyber crime coordination cell at the headquarter-level and also establish district cyber crime cells. The ministry has already created a new wing — Cyber and Information Security Division — to deal with the new-age challenge.

The move came in the wake of 1,44,496 cyber security attacks observed in the country during 2014-16.  Over a period of time, there has been a phenomenal increase in use of computers, smart phones and internet. With this increase, cyber crimes have emerged as a major challenge for law enforcement agencies, the official said. 

“The cyber crime cases are of varied types. These range from defacement of government websites, online financial frauds, online stalking and harassment, and data thefts. Each requires specialised investigative skill sets and forensic tools,” another official said. Cyber crime cases pose technical, legal and administrative challenges in investigation which require strengthening of the institutional mechanism.

Phishing, scanning or probing, website intrusions and defacements, virus or malicious code and denial of service attacks are some types of cyber crimes.  National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) states that 5,693, 9,622 and 11,592 cyber crime cases were registered during 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively, showing a rise of 69 per cent during 2013 to 2014 and 20 per cent increase during 2014 to 2015.

The Home ministry has also advised the states to expedite setting up of cyber and mobile forensic labs, and to identify the need for research and development in specific areas of cyber space. The states were asked to come up with suggestions for amendments in legal and policy framework dealing with such crimes.