Forensic labs to test and certify digital crimes

The Centre has decided to set up forensic labs in different parts of the country to test and certify the digital crime to strengthen evidence against the culprits.

As the electronic evidence is an important aspect to establish the cyber crime under IT Act 2000, the proposed lab will work as certifying authority to establish cyber crime, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said here.

With the lack of a forensic lab, which can establish and certify cyber crime, criminals go scot-free due to lack of evidence. To prevent this, the government has proposed new labs, said an official in the ministry.

Cyber security is the biggest challenge to the government with increasing penetration of digital transactions and proliferation of broadband in the country.

As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-­In), a total number of 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cyber security incidents including phishing, virus, website intrusion and defacement were observed during the year 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.

According to the National Crime Record Bureau, a total of 5,693, 9,622 and 11,592 cybercrime cases were registered during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 respectively.

In 2016 alone, total 33,147 websites were hacked and most of the attacks have been originating from various countries including China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Romania, the UK, the US, Syria, the UAE and Italy, a senior official in the IT Ministry told DH.

To meet the challenges, the government is also planning to slash the testing fee of starts up that introduce technology for cyber security by 50%.