To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C).
As per the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India, ‘Police Order’ and ‘Public Order’ are State issues. Hence, States and UTs are primarily responsible for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cybercrimes through their Law Enforcement Agencies. The Central Government supplements the initiatives of the State Governments through advisories and schemes for the capacity building of their Law Enforcement Agencies. To strengthen the mechanism to deal with cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner, the Central Government, through the Ministry of Home Affairs has set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to deal with all types of cybercrime in the country.
The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) compiles and publishes the statistical data on crimes in its publication ‘Crime in India’. Its Cyber Crime Reporting Portal -https: //cybercrime.gov.in was launched, as a part of the I4C, to enable the public to report incidents about all types of cybercrimes, with a special focus on cybercrimes against women and children. Cybercrime 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. 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. Since the inception of the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System, more than ₹1,200 Crore have been saved in more than 4.7 lakh complaints. A toll-free Helpline number 1930 has been operationalised to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints. The State and UT-wise details of the Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting Management System from January 1 to December 31, 2023, are in the Annexure. To date, more than 3.2 lakh SIM cards and 49,000 IMEIs as reported by Police authorities have been blocked by the Government of India.
The Computer Emergency Response Team is the National Incident Response Centre for major computer security incidents in the Indian cyber community. CERT-In issues alerts and advisories regarding the latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers, mobile phones, networks and data on an ongoing basis. CERT-In, through RBI, has advised all authorised entities and banks issuing pre-paid payment instruments (wallets) in the country to carry out special audits by CERT-In-empanelled
auditors, close the non-compliances identified in the audit report and ensure implementation of security best practices. CERT-In and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) jointly carry out a cybersecurity awareness campaign on ‘beware and be aware of financial frauds’ through the Digital India Platform. To enhance the mechanism for addressing cybercrimes comprehensively and in a coordinated manner, the Central Government of India, through the Ministry of Home Affairs, has established the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C). To raise awareness about cybercrime, the Central Government has implemented several measures, including the dissemination of messages through SMS, social media accounts associated with I4C i.e. X (formerly Twitter) – @Cyberdost; Facebook: CyberDostI4C; Instagram – Cyberdosti4C, and Telegram – Cyberdosti4c; a radio campaign, and collaboration with MyGov for publicity across various platforms. They have also organised Cyber Safety and Security Awareness Weeks in partnership with States/UTs and published a Handbook for Adolescents/Students. States and UTs have been encouraged to conduct public awareness campaigns to foster mass awareness of cyber safety.
