Visakhapatnam: Cybercrime has become a national security issue, says Commissioner of Police

1.50 million people being affected on a daily basis, says Ch. Srikanth; A.P. stands seventh in country in number of cases

The dangers associated with cybercrime are not to be taken lightly, Commissioner of Police Ch. Srikanth cautioned, adding that anyone can become a victim of cyberattacks.

The Police Commissioner was addressing a national seminar on cybercrime titled ‘Cyber Apradh se Azadi — Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, here on Thursday.

Cyberattacks have now become a national security issue, and they have become a tool for hostile countries with which they can try and cripple the economy. Almost 1.50 million people are affected by various forms of cybercrime on a daily basis, he said.

“Anybody, from a person sitting in the living room of his house, to someone possessing intelligence on national security, can be duped and information fished out through cybercrimes, including ways such as honey-trapping,” he said.

Citing Operation Dolphin, in which a number of Naval personnel from Visakhapatnam were arrested, he said, “All of them were honey-trapped by women employed by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan, so that they would give away critical defence information.”

While Andhra Pradesh stands at the seventh position in the country in recording the number of cybercrimes, Visakhapatnam is leading from the front in the State.

Speaking about the types of crimes usually witnessed in the city, the Commissioner said that abuse over email and social media and being conned by fake loan apps are leading the modus operandi of cybercrime in the city. These are followed by scams like OTP frauds, Nigerian 419 scam, B2B frauds, job frauds, online link and KYC frauds and email and social media hacking.