Digital Banking: Over 2.9 lakh Cyber Security incidents reported in 2020

The Minister of State for the Electronics and IT, Sanjay Dhotre, highlighted in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha that; more than 2.9 lakh digital banking cybersecurity incidents were reported in the year 2020.

Cases of cyber incidents

• The data from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) reveals that, a total number of 2,90,445 cybersecurity incidents were reported in the year 2020.
• These incidents have increased as opposed to 2,46,514 incidents in 2019 and 1,59,761 incidents in 2018.
• These cybersecurity incidents range from the network scanning probing, phishing attacks, viruses and the website hacking.

Rising Digital Transactions

• The ministry highlighted that, the digital transactions have increased by 46% in the year 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic when compared to that of 2018 and 2019.
• In the financial year 2019-20, the numbers of digital transactions have increased to 4,572 crores as opposed to the 3,134 crores transactions in financial year 2018-19.
• Ministry further said, the scope of digital payments has now expanded because of increasing popularity of non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) along with the popularity of the e-commerce.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In)

It is an office under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The office is the nodal agency that deals with the cyber security threats such as hacking and phishing. The agency works for strengthening the security-related defence of the Indian Internet domain.

NCRB data on Cybercrimes

The data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) shows that 6,233 cases were registered under fraud and cheating in the year 2019. It involved that cases communication devices as medium or target as per Information Technology Act 2000.

Information Technology Act 2000

It is an Act of the Indian Parliament that was notified in October 2000. This act deals with cybercrime and electronic commerce. Section 69A of the IT Act empowers the government to block any information transmitted, generated, received, hosted, or stored in any computer resource in the interest of sovereignty, integrity, defence or security of the Nation.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2021