Cybercrime is posing a big challenge for the Maharashtra police as the state has witnessed a rise in such cases this year as compared to 2017, according to official figures.

A total of 2,945 cases of cyber crimes were registered till September this year as against 2,645 till October 2017, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, said in a written reply in the state Assembly on Tuesday.

He said the maximum number of cybercrime cases were reported in Mumbai, though the figures were not specified in the written reply.

So far, 43 cyber labs have been declared as cyber police stations. Of these, 36 cyber police stations are functioning and the remaining seven will be operational soon, he said.

The cyber police stations have been provided with modern software and hardware technology tools, he said, adding that since 2016, 198 police officials have been imparted training on how to deal with cyber crimes.

In September this year, principal secretary of the co-operation department held a meeting with senior officials of the police and information technology departments, and representatives of various banks in connection with the cyber crime cases, he said.

Fadnavis referred to a cybercrime case where hackers had managed to siphon off over Rs 94 crore through a malware attack on the server of Pune-based Cosmos Bank and cloning thousands of the bank's debit cards over a period of two days in August this year.

A process was on to set up a 'knowledge hub' to provide information to banks about debit card cloning and cyber attacks, the chief minister said, adding that the Pune district urban banks' association was handling the project.