Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju on Thursday advocated collaboration among law enforcement agencies worldwide to tackle the threat posed by cyber crimes.
In his address at the valedictory session of the Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, he, citing National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, said a total of 33,531 cyber-crime cases were registered during 2014-2016 in India.
Cyber crime was recorded as the fourth largest crime in 2016 in India with 7.7 per cent cases, cheating on top (68.4 per cent), criminal breach of trust second (11.7 per cent) and forgery third (8.6 per cent), he said.
Of the 48.6 per cent (5,987 out of 12,317 cases) of cyber-crimes reported in 2016 were for illegal gain followed by cases of revenge with 8.6 per cent (1,056) and insult to modesty of women with 5.6 per cent (686 cases), the Minister said.
He said rather than multiple partners investing in and developing highly specialised skill-sets, high-level model would be for law enforcement partners to focus on distinct core competencies to make them available to others "as a service".
"It is important to consider law enforcement as one of the key partners in ensuring cyber security globally," he said.
Rijiju said besides technology, challenges in cyber-crime investigation stems from lack of adequate capacity as also legal challenges, and law enforcement should continue to focus on attribution and intelligence development in order to identify, locate and prosecute key criminal individuals to achieve more permanent impact on the criminal community.
He said the Indian government has sought to empower stakeholders and public through various policy initiatives which had positive outcomes at the operational level but "police across the countries also needs to evolve a better coordination, information sharing mechanism and develop mutual trust by respecting the local laws and regulations".
"Without such international cooperation, it would be extremely difficult for a country to address the new age policing single-handedly. Steps should be taken to facilitate intensified cooperation across government (law enforcement), to allow information sharing and a coordinated approach to response to cyber crimes and attacks."
Calling cyber diplomacy an evolving subject at both bilateral and multilateral levels, Rijiju said that India has sought to play a responsible role on both these fronts.
"Concerns of like-minded multiple stakeholders (the model that India supports) were articulated in the ICANN conference held in Hyderabad. It was further emphasized during the Global Conference for Cyber Security 2017 held in New Delhi last November.
"We need to continue to take up concerns of Governments, particularly when it involves issues such as tackling cyber-crimes and terrorism," he added.
