Check growing cyber frauds, Rajnath directs officials

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today chaired a meeting of all agencies concerned and representatives of a few states to review the measures being taken to arrest the growing trend of cybercrime in the financial sector, particularly in view of the government''s stress on digital transactions.

Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 19

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today chaired a meeting of all agencies concerned and representatives of a few states to review the measures being taken to arrest the growing trend of cybercrime in the financial sector, particularly in view of the government's stress on digital transactions.

Expressing concerns over the disturbing rise in cyber financial frauds using cards and e-wallets in particular, Singh asked the officials to strengthen "the surveillance and legal framework to check the menace".

"Officers from various agencies made presentations and apprised the minister of the current trends of financial cybercrimes in the country and the steps being taken by their agencies to address the challenge," a senior Ministry of Home Affairs official said.

Capacity building of various stakeholders such as police officers, judicial officers, forensic scientists as well as officials in the banking sector had been identified as a key measure, the official said, adding: "It has been decided to expedite the implementation of cybercrime prevention initiatives in these agencies along with measures required to acquire critical cyber forensics equipment".

During the meeting, the official said, an idea was mooted to form an "inter-ministerial committee to identify action points and monitor the implementation".

The Home Minister, however, directed all agencies concerned to undertake required measures in a time-bound manner and emphasised on the coordination in this regard, the official said.

Among the officials who attended the meeting included Union Home Secretary Rajib Gauba, Department of Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Intelligence Bureau Director Rajiv Jain and Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik.

As many as 1,44,496 cyber security attacks had been observed in the country in last three years. As per the information by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, a total of 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cyber security incidents were observed during 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.