Forces inimical to India have ‘cyber armies’ to launch cyberattacks against India: Home Minister Amit Shah

Amit Shah was speaking at the inauguration of the national conference on cyber safety and national security.

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. The Minister stated that data privacy and protection of critical infrastructure from cyberattacks were imminent challenges in the wake of the digital revolution in the country and it was a matter of happiness that 80 crore Indians had online presence. The current population was estimated to be 135 crore. 

Mr. Shah was speaking at the inauguration of the national conference on cyber safety and national security. The conference was organised by the Home Ministry as part of the efforts to create mass awareness for the prevention of cybercrimes in the country.

The Home Minister said technology had penetrated to the lowest level in the country and if measures were not taken for securing the cyber sphere it could become a challenge “for all of us”.

He said it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision that each Indian should be empowered with Internet and technology. “Today, 130 crore people are able to receive Direct Benefit Transfer. This was unthinkable before 2014 as 60 crore people did not have bank accounts due to corruption and other reasons,” Mr. Shah said. In the past few days, cyber awareness campaign had been conducted in different parts of the country, including Jharkhand. “You must be aware about these kids from Jharkhand who committed cyber frauds. I am happy such a campaign was also held in the State,” he said.

Mr. Shah said crimes such as malware attacks, phishing, attack on critical infrastructure, 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%.

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.

Mr. Shah 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.