(a) and (b): ‘Police’ and ‘Public Order’ are State subjects as per the Constitution of India. States/UTs are primarily responsible for prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of crimes through their law enforcement machinery. However, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) supports State Government initiatives through the various schemes and advisories.
Government has taken a number of legal, technical and administrative measures to prevent cybercrimes. These inter alia, include:
(i) To spread awareness on cybercrime, MHA has taken several steps that include dissemination of messages on cybercrime through MHA Twitter handle @cyberDost, radio campaign, publishing of Handbook for Adolescents/Students, publishing of ‘Information Security Best practices’ for the benefit of Govt. Officials/ Officers. Organizing of cyber Safety and Security Awareness weeks, in association with police department in different States/Uts etc.
(ii) To prevent such crimes and to speed up investigation, MHA has taken several steps to spread awareness about cyber crimes issue through alerts/advisories, capacity building, training of law enforcement personnel/prosecutors/judicial officers, improving cyber forensics facilities etc. MHA has also launched an online national cyber crime reporting portal, (www.cybercrime.gov.in) to enable complainants to report complaints pertaining to all types of cyber crimes with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children.
(iii) The Information Technology Act, 2000 has provisions to deal with prevalent cybercrimes.
(iv) Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology has approved a project on Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA) Project Phase II, which inter-alia includes a component of creating mass awareness on Information Security. Under this activity, so far 1,046 half day awareness workshops on information security have been organized across the country for various user groups covering 1,36,937 participants. As a part of these workshops, various topics including data theft, phishing, ransomware attacks, etc. were covered. In addition, awareness handbooks were distributed as a part of these workshops to disseminate information and tips on safe use of internet, which inter-alia includes a chapter on phishing attacks covering general overview, techniques, tips for recognizing phishing messages and some do’s & don’ts. Awareness material in the form of handbook, posters, brochures, newsletter, videos, etc. w.r.t. phishing/ransomware have been also made available for download on the website www.isea.gov.in and www.infosecawareness.in. Besides this, 5 one-hour programs on cyber security/cyber-crime awareness have been broadcast through Doordarshan (DD) Yadagiri (covering Telangana/Andhra Pradesh), DD Karnataka and DD Odisha.
(c): National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, www.cybercrime.gov.in has been launched to enable citizens to online report complaints pertaining to all types of cyber crimes with special focus on cyber crimes against women and children. Complaints reported on this portal are attended by the respective Law Enforcement Authorities of States. A nation-wide helpline number [155260] is also made functional to help public in filing complaints through the portal.
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