Cybercrime Complaints Rise 24% Nationally, Dip in Telangana: States Join Hands

In news

• Cybercrime complaints rose 24% across India in 2024-25.
• Telangana recorded a 3% fall in cases and a 20% fall in money lost.
• The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau and the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) hosted a Joint Cyber Coordination Team (JCCT) meeting in Hyderabad.
• Officers from 13 States attended.

Key points from the meeting

• Cybercrime is now an organised industry, not a few individual criminals.
• Focus must shift from recovering money to preventing the crime: block the phone numbers and bank accounts criminals use.
• Scam compounds are moving from South-East Asia to Africa and other regions.
• All States have set up State Cyber Crime Coordination Centre dashboards.

What are Joint Cyber Coordination Teams?

• Set up by the Ministry of Home Affairs under I4C.
• They help States share information, identify hotspots and act jointly against cross-border criminal networks.
• Seven JCCTs: Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Visakhapatnam and Guwahati.

About I4C

• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, launched in 2020.
• Tools:
  • 1930: national cyber fraud helpline.
  • cybercrime.gov.in: National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.
  • Samanvaya: platform to link crimes and criminals across States.
  • Suspect Registry: database of fraud accounts and numbers, shared with banks.
  • Cyber Commandos: trained cyber security personnel.

Common frauds to know

• "Digital arrest": criminals pose as police or CBI on a video call and demand money. There is no such thing as a digital arrest in law.
• Investment and trading scams.
• Fake job and loan apps.
• Phishing and OTP fraud.

Static connect

• Police and public order are State subjects (Seventh Schedule, State List). Cybercrime crosses borders, so coordination is vital.
• Information Technology Act, 2000: main cyber law.
• Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023: includes cybercrime within organised crime.
• CERT-In (under the Ministry of Electronics and IT): handles cyber security incidents. I4C handles cybercrime.
• Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.

Exam relevance: UPSC Prelims and GS-3 (Internal Security, Cyber Security); TGPSC, APPSC (Internal Security, Telangana).