Rajnath Singh reviews cybersecurity framework; govt will strengthen surveillance, legal framework

New Delhi: Concerned over growing incidents of cybercrime, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday reviewed various measures, including strengthening of surveillance and legal framework, to deal with financial frauds using bank cards and e-wallets.A high-level, inter-ministerial meeting, chaired by the home minister, took stock of the steps being taken to check financial cybercrime emanating from the usage of cards and e- wallets in particular and how to protect interests of the citizens, according to a home ministry statement.Big data analysis by IIT-Delhi for identification of perpetrators of phone frauds in order to prevent duplication across e-wallets, and providing additional information through SMS or email alerts to customers from banks or e-wallet companies are some of the key actions being taken by the government.[caption id="attachment_4004381" align="alignleft" width="380"]

Representational image.Reuters.[/caption]The customer alert mechanism to include names of beneficiaries of any financial transaction wherever necessary for better traceability and crosschecking on the part of the victim, publishing online statistics depicting the specific incidents, frauds against of e-wallet companies and banks along with details including investigation to enable customers to make an informed choice before subscribing to e-wallet services are other initiatives being planned.Legal aspects involved in making the 'Metadata Archival' possible by way of sharing of data among different government or private agencies, reduction of insurance cost and mandatory KYC for all the entities issuing PPIs (Pay-per-install) disabling of default international transactions facility for credit/debit cards are also being contemplated, the statement said.An inter-ministerial committee on phone frauds (IMCPF) has been constituted in the home ministry in September last. The committee with representatives of various stakeholders, including the Reserve Bank of India and law enforcement agencies, has already discussed various nature of phone frauds taking place in India and the steps to be taken by various stakeholder organisations in order to curb such instances.As many as 1,44,496 cyber security attacks were observed in the country in last three years, according to data tabled in Parliament. As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), total 44679, 49455 and 50362 cyber security incidents were observed during 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.Cyber security incidents included phishing, scanning/probing, website intrusions and defacements, virus/malicious code and denial of service attacks.As per data maintained by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), total 5693, 9622 and 11592 cybercrime cases were registered in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.In Monday's meeting, the home minister was informed about the measures taken by the Jharkhand Police to crackdown on the perpetrators of phone frauds which has resulted in considerable fall in instances of these crimes. Singh directed the IMCPF to examine all the issues in consultation with all the relevant stakeholders expeditiously.