Pramesh S Jain & Yogesh K Porwar
B
engaluru being IT capital hub,digital literacy among the users is lower leading to increasing in cyber crimes, C.Vamsi Krishna,Deputy Inspector General of Police, Economic Offences,Cybercrimes and Narcotics,CID said .
He was speaking on the workshop on cyber security jointly organised by Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA),Karnataka Regional Branch.
The workshop was conducted at the IAS Officers Association on Infantry Road on Saturday.
Citing an example,he said that even though hundreds of apps available on mobile phones,Many of them are not being used and left unattended which become vulnerable to cyber crimes,he said.
He also said even though there is a provision for locking the Aadhar details,people are not aware of such facilities .
It is important for everyone to understand technology before adopting it.“We are lacking in these.Most of us have the habit of first using technology,falling prey and then doing research”,he said .
It should be reversal and people should stop for few seconds before reacting to the messages they receive on their devices .
89 per cent of cyber victims losing money are not getting it back due to technical and banking regulations, he said .
Crime starts where security is breached,people should not be fallen to the freebies or offers and stop believing what they see on social media,he said.
In his introductory remarks,Director General and Inspector General of Police,CID,MA Saleem,said that nearly 25 to 30 percent of the total crimes registered in major cities are cyber crimes.
In Bengaluru city,one third of the crimes registered in all police stations are cyber crimes.
In 2022,65,000 cyber crimes cases were registered across the country.The share of Karnataka was about 16339 cases which is 25 percent of total cyber crime cases registered across the country.Of the 16339 cases,Bengaluru’s share is 90 per cent.
There is a great sense of awareness needed to prevent cyber crimes and educating people in all walks of life on cyber crimes is way forward.
Nobody is safe,everybody is vulnerable.Any person using any technological device is vulnerable to cyber crimes.Awareness has to be created to everybody in every city to safeguard them.
The state government formulated the cyber security bill in 1999 which was one year before the Information Technology Act was enacted.
The first cyber crime police station in the country was established in Bengaluru,in CID in 2001.CID along with NASSCOM has created the Cyber Training Lab in 2007.
In 2019,Centre for Cybercrime Investigation Training and Research (CCITR) was created to train all investigating officers,officers from judiciary along with others.
Since the last four years,the CID has trained about 17,000 personnel from police department,judiciary and members from defence forces also,he said.
The realm of today’s criminal scenario revolves around cyber crimes.Technological advancement which has made everybody’s lives comfortable is used by cyber criminals for ungainful advantages.
Physical offences are being replaced by cyber crimes. More criminals feel that the risk involved in physical crimes is not worth it as chances of getting caught is much more compared.
But in cybercrimes,the identity of the accused will not be known to anybody as cybercriminals operate sitting in some corner of the world.
Cyber criminals are not from any metropolitan but are from small towns and most of them are college dropouts and unemployed youths, he added.
Retired IAS officer,TM Vijay Bhaskar,Chairman,IIPA, Karnataka,said that amounts involved in cyber frauds are humongous.
People from all walks of life from youngsters to senior citizens and even software engineers are falling victims to cyber crimes.
Awareness about the provisions of law that will help us to guard against cyber crimes is important.How to make our cyber presence more secure whether it is smart phones or laptops is most important,the retired IAS officer said.
