Cybercrime sees 20% rise; UP, K'taka top list

Cybercrime has witnessed an alarming 20% rise in the country with Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka topping the list in the number of cases registered. The trend of cyber attacks, related to targeting websites and data theft among others, are also on the rise, with the first five months of 2016 witnessing 21,248 incidents.

According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Home Affairs, there were 11,592 cybercrimes reported in 2015 compared to 9,622 in the previous year. In 2013, there were 5,693 cases registered. Officials said one of the reasons for the rise in cases is the increased understanding of cyber laws and provisions among the police and common man.

Slowly, the number of convictions are also on the rise with statistics showing an almost three-fold increase. While 95 people were convicted in 76 cases in 2014, the number rose to 302 convicted in 234 cases in 2015.

The number of people arrested in 2015 was 8,121 as against 5,752 the previous year. Among the states, Uttar Pradesh (2,208), Maharashtra (2,195) and Karnataka (1,447) continued to top the list in the number of cases for another year. These three states together accounted for 50.46% of the cases, as against 48.18% in the previous year.

While Uttar Pradesh has better conviction numbers (112 convicted in 82 cases), the figures for Karnataka (3 persons in 3 cases) and Maharashtra (4 persons in 2 cases) are dismal.

The number of cyber attacks has also seen a rise. While there were 41,319 cyber attacks reported in 2013, it rose to 44,679 next year and 49,455 in 2015.

In 2016 till May, there were 11,915 website defacements, 7,680 virus attacks, 852 cases of website intrusions, 281 cases of phishing and 225 cases of network scanning among others.

Minister of State for Home Hansraj Ahir recently told the Lok Sabha that the Computer Emergency Response Team was conducting regular training programmes on cyber security to enable officials to fight cyber attacks.

Tackling cybercrime
The government is working to tackle cybercrimes and attacks by setting up a Rs 500-crore India Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to tackle the menace.