Centre sent over 100 crore phone messages to raise awareness on cyber crimes

By Rajnish Singh
New Delhi [India], April 29 : The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) under its Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (14C) scheme sent over 100 crore SMS to the people to raise awareness about cyber crimes.
The MHA, in its recently published Annual Report- 2020-2021, said: "Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre was established in the national capital under the 14C scheme to deal with cybercrimes in a coordinated and comprehensive manner".
The report also said that the MHA had launched 'CyberDost' Twitter handle to spread awareness on cyber crime prevention under 14C scheme initiatives taken for promoting cyber crime awareness, and "over 679 tips have been tweeted and it has more than 2.5 lakh followers".
"Over 100 crore SMSs on cyber crime awareness delivered to the general public," it added.
It further said that regular consultations are held among ministries, industries, academia and other stakeholders to identify the areas of cooperation and develop holistic approaches to deal with cyber crimes.
It said the 14C aims to strengthen the capability of Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) and improve coordination between various agencies and LEAs, and that the vision of the scheme is to create an effective framework and ecosystem for prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of cyber crimes.
Among the key components of 14C, the report notes, is a National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit, a National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, National Cybercrime Ecosystem Management, National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory Ecosystem, National Cybercrime Training Centre, National Cyber Crime Research and Innovation Centre and platform for Joint Cybercrime Investigation Teams.
The revamped National Cybercrime Reporting Portal under 14C was launched on August 30, 2019, said the report, adding "the older version of cybercrime reporting portal, under Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCWC) scheme, enabled filing of cybercrime complaints pertaining to Child Pornography or sexually explicit content such as Rape/Gang Rape (CP/RGR) only."
"The revamped portal allows reporting of all types of cyber crimes and gives special focus on cybercrimes against women and children."
The MHA rolled out a 14C scheme for the period 2018-2020, to combat cybercrime in the country, in a coordinated and effective manner. The scheme to set up I4C was approved in October 2018 at an estimated cost of Rs 415.86 crore, to deal with all types of cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and also dedicated National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to the nation on January 10, 2020. This state-of-the-art Centre is located in New Delhi.
Till Jan 10, 2020, more than 700 police districts and more than 3,900 police stations were connected with the Portal. After successful completion, this portal can improve the capacity of the law enforcement agencies to investigate the cases and will improve success in prosecution. This portal also focuses on specific crimes like financial crime and social media related crimes like stalking and cyber bullying.
This portal will improve coordination amongst the law enforcement agencies of different States, districts and police stations for dealing with cyber crimes in a coordinated and effective manner, say officials in the MHA, adding "the MHA is committed to providing and creating an ecosystem for dealing with the cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner".
"In future, this portal will provide for a chatbot for automated interactive assistance system to the public for guidance on cybercrime prevention and how to report incidents on the portal," said officials.