Over 53,000 cybersecurity incidents were reported in 2017, says IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

Over 53,000 cybersecurity incidents like phishing, website intrusions and defacements, virus and ransomware attacks were observed in the country during 2017, the Parliament was informed on 9 March.[caption id="attachment_4289193" align="alignleft" width="380"] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption]"As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 44,679, 49,455, 50,362 and 53,081 cybersecurity incidents were observed during the year 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively," IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.He added that the types of cybersecurity incidents included phishing, scanning or probing, website intrusions, and defacements, virus or malicious code, ransomware, and denial of service attacks etc."With the proliferation and vast expansion of Information Technology and related services, there is a rise in instances of cybercrimes including financial frauds, using bank cards and e-wallets in the country like elsewhere in the world," he said.As per the data maintained by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), a total of 9,622, 11,592, and 12,317 cybercrime cases were registered during the years 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively, he added.The minister said the government has taken a number of legal, technical, and administrative measures to prevent incidents of cybercrimes.These include enactment of the IT Act, 2000 that has adequate provisions for dealing with prevalent cybercrimes and establishment of National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) for protection of critical infrastructure in the country.Besides, cybercrime cells have been set up in all states and union territories for reporting and investigation of cybercrime cases.