The Ministry of Home Affairs has operationalised the national Helpline 155260 and Reporting Platform for preventing financial loss due to cyber fraud. The helpline was soft-launched on 1st April.
The National Helpline and Reporting Platform provides a mechanism for persons cheated in cyber frauds to report such cases to prevent loss of their hard earned money.
Also, a National Cyber Security Strategy 2020 is being formulated by the Office of National Cyber Security Coordinator at the National Security Council Secretariat.
What is Cyber security?
- Cyber Security is protecting cyber space including critical information infrastructure from attack, damage, misuse and economic espionage.
- Critical Information Infrastructure: According to Section 70(1) of the Information Technology Act, CII is defined as a “computer resource, the incapacitation or destruction of which, shall have debilitating impact on national security, economy, public health or safety”.
- Cyber Fraud: It is the crime committed via a computer with the intent to corrupt another individual’s personal and financial information stored online. It is the most common type of fraud and individuals and organisations need to be vigilant and protect their information from fraudsters.
How does this help?
- The helpline has been made operational by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), in coordination with the Reserve Bank of India, all major banks, payment banks, wallets and online merchants.
- The Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System has been developed by I4C to integrate Law Enforcement Agencies and Banks and Financial Intermediaries.
- The facility empowers both the banks and the police, by leveraging new-age technologies for sharing online fraud related information and taking action in almost real time.
- Since its soft launch, in a short span of two months, the helpline has assisted in saving more than Rs 1.85 crore.
What is I4C?
- I4C is Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre
- The scheme to set up I4C was approved in October 2018, to deal with all types of cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
- It has seven components:
- National Cyber Crime Threat Analytics Unit
- National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal
- National Cyber Crime Training Centre
- Cyber Crime Ecosystem Management Unit
- National Cyber Crime Research and Innovation Centre
- National Cyber Crime Forensic Laboratory Ecosystem
- Platform for Joint Cyber Crime Investigation Team.
- 15 States and Union Territories have given their consent to set up Regional Cyber Crime Coordination Centres.
- This state-of-the-art Centre is located in New Delhi.
What are other initiatives to tackle Cyber Crime?
- Draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2018 (based on the recommendation of Justice BN Srikrishna Committee) to secure citizens data.
- Cyber Swachhta Kendra: The “Cyber Swachhta Kendra” (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre) is a part of the Government of India’s Digital India initiative under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
- Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN): It is an organisation of the MeitY, with the objective of securing Indian cyberspace. It is the nodal agency which deals with cybersecurity threats like hacking and phishing.
Conclusion
Data is the new gold, it is very important that we protect our data from cyber fraudsters and cyber criminals. We have to stay aware and stay safe! But if we realise a data breach / cyber fraud / cyber crime, we have to report it immediately !
Remember ” A stitch in time saves nine! “
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