Not only India, the whole world is in the grip of cyber fraud. Globally, cyber attacks have increased by 76 percent in the first quarter of 2024 as compared to the same period last year. Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, China, Russia and Iran are becoming havens for cyber fraud. The World Economic Forum has said in its recent report that cyber fraud cannot be completely stopped.
There is a need for global cooperation to stop this. That is why India is communicating with the European Union on cyber cooperation. Different countries are making special laws to stop cyber fraud and crime. A few days ago, a new law on cyber security has been approved in Australia, while the US is also going to bring a law for cyber security soon. It will be interesting to see how effective the laws being made across the world, including India, become as cyber criminals change their activities.
Crores of rupees are being lost due to cyber fraud
Last year, America suffered a loss of $12.5 billion due to cyber fraud. Experts say that the Electronics and IT Ministry of the Government of India came up with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act last year, but it has not been implemented yet. The implementation of the DPDP Act will help prevent cyber fraud, especially personal fraud. Under this Act, it will not be easy to sell or give any person's digital data to anyone else.
Digital data cannot be used without permission
Digital data can be given for use elsewhere only with the consent of the person. The person will have the right to know from where an organization got his data. The advantage of this will be that if a company already has your data, it will ask you before using it or giving it to someone else. But the truth is that personal data is already public. Those who break the law will be fined crores. Experts say that data is the most important weapon for cyber fraud.
There have been many cases of bank employees selling the data of account holders to fraudsters. By getting the data, the fraudster gets important information about the person and it becomes easy to cheat him. Currently, e-commerce companies or intermediaries have a large amount of data of people and they have no information about how it is being used. When the DPDP Act comes into force, the use of data will be limited.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT is currently busy preparing a framework for cyber security. Proposals have been invited to conduct research and prepare projects in sectors such as network and system security, digital forensics, encryption and cryptography, automation in cyber security, cyber security audits and incident response so that cyber security can be ensured. A group of experts related to cyber security will finalize these proposals.
The government is also running programs like Cyber Safe India Training Program, cyber security awareness for government employees. Instructions are being given to appoint cyber security officers in all companies. There is also a plan to prepare a cyber security workforce of lakhs in the next five years.
Tarun Vig, founder of cyber security research company Inefu Lab, said that personal data and confidential information are being stolen on a large scale through data leaks, phishing and malware. Awareness will have to be spread among the people with programs like Cyber Warrior Day and cyber policing infrastructure will have to be created. With the help of large-scale data analytics, a list of people involved in cyber fraud will have to be prepared and those accounts will also have to be brought forward in which the fraud amount is deposited.
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