In an attempt to tackle the rapidly growing menace of cybercrime in India, the Central government has introduced a range of new initiatives to enable greater data sharing between law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders. Union Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah has announced the setting up of the Central Suspect Registry, the Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC), and the Samanvaya Platform. A new programme to train a special wing of cyber sleuths was also revealed. “Cybersecurity is no longer restricted to the digital world. It is an important part of national security,” Shah said at an event marking the first foundation day of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) in New Delhi on Tuesday, September 10. The I4C comes under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and is responsible for combatting cybercrimes by improving law enforcement coordination, raising awareness, etc. “No single institution can keep cyber space secured single-handedly. This is possible only when many stakeholders come on the same platform and move forward on the same method and path,” Shah said at the event. Here is a quick look at each of the new anti-cybercrime initiatives and what they are designed for: Central Suspect Registry The Central Suspect Registry will serve as a central-level database with consolidated data on cybercrime suspects from across the country. “Cyber suspect registry being in state silos does not work. States have borders and so do the state registries. So, we felt the need to create a centralised suspect registry that connects to all states,” the home minister said. The National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) has been tasked with establishing the Suspect Registry. The NCRP will work with banks and financial intermediaries to create a pool of identifiers that would assist law enforcement agencies at the national and state level in mitigating cyber frauds. Under the Suspect Registry system, the I4C will share a list of all the repeat offenders in their servers with police personnel of any state as well as bank officials. Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) The CFMC will focus on addressing online financial fraud and scams. It looks to prevent such cybercrimes by facilitating cooperation between various stakeholders such as major banks, payment aggregators, telecom companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), central agencies, and local police on a single platform. The CFMC is also likely to work on identifying the modus operandi (MO) of cyber criminals using data and inputs from the representatives of these stakeholders. Samanvaya Platform The Samanvaya Platform, also known as the Joint Cybercrime Investigation Facilitation System, will be designed as a single repository of data pertaining to cyber crimes. This unified database is expected to aid in cyber crime mapping, data sharing, data analytics, cooperation and coordination among law enforcement agencies across India. Cyber Commandos The central government has launched a new programme that looks to establish a special wing of ‘Cyber Commandos’ who will be specially trained to counter cyber security threats. These commandos will be stationed in Central Police Organisations (CPOs) in all states and Union Territories. The government plans to train and deploy 5,000 such Cyber Commandos over the next five years, Shah said. Apart from the upcoming initiatives, the government has put in place other cybersecurity measures as well. Earlier this year, the I4C released an app called Pratibimb that uses Geographic Information System (GIS)-based software to map cybercrime hotspots and activities of cyber criminals in real time. The I4C has also set up a dedicated cybercrime reporting helpline number ‘1930’ which reportedly received over 31 lakh complaints in 2023.
