“Cyber-crime Coordination Centre” – an alternative to fight Cyber attacks

New Delhi: The last few years have seen a great increase in cyber-crimes. In view of the increase in financial frauds, and the increasing messages spreading communal unrest as well as pornographic messages, it has been decided to establish a ‘Cyber-crime Coordination Centre’ to prevent and control such crimes at the governmental level.

An order has been issued to all states to establish such centers at the district level, to prevent cyber-crimes. The Ministry of Home Affairs has taken this decision in order to prevent cyber-crimes. A report published a few months ago, had expressed the possibility of cyber-attacks adversely affecting the country’s economic growth.

This report stated that cyber-attacks can spoil India’s relations with its neighboring countries. In the last few years, with the rise of the Internet, all the countries are faced with the new threat of cyber-attacks. Therefore, to fight this increasing menace of cyber-attacks, the government has decided to establish a cyber-forensic training laboratory-cum-training center. A provision of 830 million has been approved for such a center. “Indian Cyber-crime Coordination Center” is being set up in the capital city of New Delhi for this purpose.

This Cyber center will coordinate between the States and Union territories. This center shall also monitor the social media sites along with protection from cyber-crimes. An order has already been issued for closing those sites which are against the law of the land as well as porn sites. An officer demanding anonymity has informed that a list of suspects is being created while investigating cyber-crimes and as an attempt to keep the Internet safe.

In the meanwhile, considering the increase in cyber-crimes, it has also been asked to establish a ‘State cyber-crime coordination cell’. Such cells have also been ordered to be formed at the district levels. In view of the increasing problems of this nature, the Home Ministry has already established a Cyber and Information Security Division.

Approximately 1,44,496 cyber-crimes have been reported from 2014-16. Considering this huge volume of cyber-crimes, it has been decided to establish a coordination center. These crimes include online financial frauds, online harassment, information theft, etc. 5682, 9622 and 11,592 cyber-crimes have been reported in years 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively. In the meanwhile, the government has announced the creation of a ‘Digital India’. The Cabinet has approved the ambitious project of ‘Digital India’ which is a significant step towards e-governance by connecting all villages in the country through the Internet. While attempting for digitalization on one hand, the issue of cyber-security is also gaining equal importance. Cyber-security is therefore, being given high priority. Cyber-attackers can gain control on nuclear projects, railways, transportation or hospitals. A global warning has been issued that cyber-attackers can create power-failures, water-pollution, impediments in transportation systems, etc. On this background, the need for taking measures to increase cyber-security is being emphasized.