Fighting cyber crimes

The Lok Sabha was told on Tuesday that a whopping 36.29 lakh cyber security incidents were observed in the country since 2019 till last month. It was further said that as per information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total of 3,94,499, 11,58,208, 14,02,809 and 67,4021 cyber security incidents were observed during 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 (upto June), respectively. The rising cases of cyber security incidents are posing a big challenge to the security establishment though the government has taken a number of measures to enhance the cyber security posture and prevent cyber attacks by issuing alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats and vulnerabilities and counter measures to protect computers and networks on a regular basis. Cyber crimes are being reported regularly in the country and Jammu and Kashmir is no exception. The government is operating an automated cyber threat exchange platform for proactively collecting, analysing and sharing tailored alerts with organisations across sectors for proactive threat mitigation actions by them, there is much more needed to deal with the challenge.
In Jammu and Kashmir, the cyber cell of the Police too had bigger challenges is cyber crimes here don’t involve frauds alone but pose a threat to the security of the nation. J&K’s cyber cell has been doing it good job but it needs to be strengthening and cyber policing should be taught to the police in its training manual. With new times, emerge new challenges and cyber security is one among these challenges. In a volatile place like Jammu and Kashmir, the concerned wing of the police should be provided best facilities and best expert assistance to counter cyber crimes.
On Tuesday, Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, while chairing a review meeting of the central police training institutes, emphasised that training of policemen should be changed over time. He said that use of technology and modern equipment in training of police forces is the need of the hour. As rightly pointed out by the Home Minister, the training manual of police should change with the changing times, of course keeping the focus on basic policing, cyber crimes and cyber security is a challenge that police and other security agencies will have to face for times to come. Police administration in Jammu and Kashmir should also focus on the issue and rise to face the challenge. As already mentioned, J&K Polices’ cyber cell has done some commendable job in cracking down cyber crimes, the wing should be more scientific and more and more personnel should be trained in this regard.
It is also the responsibility of the citizenry to come forward and share their apprehensions with the police whenever are face to face with a situation where they suspect the cyber crime. On-line frauds are being committed very frequently and it is satisfying that whenever such a case has been reported to the police, the cyber cell has proved its worth. The public-police cooperation and coordination is a must to put an end to such crimes.