There has been a significant rise in number cyber crimes cases in India. As per information compiled by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), during the years 2005, 2006 and 2007, a total of 179, 142 and 217 cases were registered in the country under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and a total of 302, 311 and 339 cases were registered in the country under cyber crime related sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), respectively.
This was stated by Dr. Shakeel Ahmed, Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs, in the Rajya Sabha.
However, the NCRB, which compiles state-wise data on various crimes in India under the Information Technology Act, 2000 and IPC, does not have any comparable data to comment on the prevailing cyber crime scenario in the world.
According to Dr. Ahmed, the existing Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for legal framework to prevent cyber crimes. Further, the act has been amended to include provisions to address computer crimes like phishing, spamming, online frauds and identity theft as also for data protection.
Indigenous cyber forensic tools
Dr. Ahmed said the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has set up a resource centre for cyber forensics at the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Thiruvanathapuram, which has developed indigenous cyber forensic tools. These tools are now being used by agencies to investigate cyber crime cases. The C-DAC, Thiruvanathapuram also conducts training programmes for law enforcement agencies on these tools.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) provides reactive and proactive support to the cyber incidents in the country. It also liaisons with similar agencies worldwide and users of cyber space and issues alerts, advisories and vulnerability notes. These advisories are also published on the website of CERT-In. The CERT-In also interacts with cyber users in the country to mitigate such incidents.
Cyber intrusion during January ’09
Meanwhile, in this January 2009, altogether 215 security incidents were reported to CERT-In from various national and international agencies. As shown in the figure, 57 per cent of incidents related to virus /worm under the malicious code category were reported in this month. Phishing incidents were 16 per cent, spamming stood at 8 per cent, unauthorized scanning was at 10 per cent, incidents related to technical help under the others category was 7 per cent and incidents related to spreading of malware through website compromise at 2 per cent were also reported in this month.
In this month CERT -In tracked 05 command and control (C&C) servers and 277697 bot-infected computers existing in India. The concerned ISPs were intimated to dis-infect the bot-infected systems and C&C servers to mitigate botnets.
Training programmes on track
Organisations like police academies, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Controller of Certifying Authority, NCRB, Regional Police Computer Training Centres (RPCTCs) etc. also conduct regular training programmes for imparting training to the police officials for preventing cyber crimes in the country, he said.
The Department of information Technology (DIT) has provided grants to CBI and Kerala Police to set up cyber forensic labs for investigating cyber crimes and these labs will also be used for training police officers.
Dr. Ahmed stated that three central forensic science laboratories (CFSLs) and three government examiners of questioned documents laboratories (GEsQD) under the Directorate of Forensic Science (DFS) having excellent facilities provide forensic analytical support to the investigating agencies to handle cyber crimes through digital evidence.
These laboratories under the DFS regularly conduct training programmes throughout the year for the benefit of law enforcement agencies and train them in search and seizure methods for handling cyber crimes and internet crimes, e-mail investigations, mobile phone forensics etc. In taddition, the government has also conducts several awareness and training programmes on cyber laws and cyber crimes for judicial officers and law enforcement agencies.
Further, under the Plan Scheme of XIth Five Year Plan of the DFS, a grant of Rs. 10 crore has been earmarked for improving the facilities and training to handle cases of cyber crime, he added.
