Shah flags importance of data protection

Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Monday that forces inimical to India had constituted “cyber armies” to launch cyberattacks against India but the Home Ministry was ready to thwart any such attempt.

Imminent challenges

• The Minister said data privacy and protection of critical infrastructure from cyberattacks were imminent challenges in the wake of the digital revolution in the country.
• Crimes such as malware attacks, phishing, attack on critical infrastructure and child pornography were not new and these were going to only increase in the future.
• The number of cybercrimes registered in 2012 was 3,377 and in 2020, it had increased to more than 50,000 cases and by 2025, the crime rate was projected to go up by 231%.

11 lakh complaints

• The cybercrime portal — cybercrime.gov.in — launched three years ago had so far received 11 lakh complaints, out of which more than two lakh pertained to social media.
• He said there had been a 96% reduction in the price of Internet data in the past seven years and the more the rate fell, the more users would be connected to the Internet.

Prelims Takeaway

• Cybercrime
• Cyber warfare