In the recent past the country has witnessed a rise in the cyber crimes with Bengaluru and national capital Delhi registering the maximum number of cases. While Bengaluru registered a total of 137 cases of cyber crimes during 2009-10, the figure in Delhi is 46. The figure in Mumbai and Chennai is slightly on lower side with12 each during the same period.    

In a written reply in the Parliament, Sachin Pilot, the minister of state of state for Communications & Information said  that as per the cyber crime data maintained by National Crime Records Bureau, a total of 217, 288, 420 and 966 Cyber Crime cases were registered under Information Technology Act, 2000 during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. Also, a total of 328, 176, 276 and 356 cases were registered under Cyber Crime related Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.

He said that a total of 154, 178, 288 and 799 persons were arrested under Information Technology Act 2000 during 2007-2010.  A total number of 429, 195, 263 and 294 persons were arrested under Cyber Crime related Sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC) during 2007-2010.

The number of Cyber Crimes reported from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru for the year 2011 is not available with National Crime Records Bureau.

He said in order to address the growing threat of Cyber Crimes in the country, the Government has evolved an integrated approach with the following legal, technical and administrative steps:

The Information Technology Act, 2000 as amended by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 has been enforced on 27.10.2009. The Act provides legal framework to address various types of cyber crimes and prescribes punishment also for such crimes.

“A major programme has been initiated on development of cyber forensics specifically cyber forensic tools, setting up of infrastructure for investigation and training of the users, particularly police and judicial officers in use of this tool to collect and analyse the digital evidence and present them in Court.” He said.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) are involved in providing basic and advanced training of Law Enforcement Agencies, Forensic labs and judiciary on the procedures and methodology of collecting, analysing and presenting digital evidence.

Cyber forensic training lab has been set up at Training Academy of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to impart basic and advanced training in Cyber Forensics and Investigation of Cyber Crimes to Police Officers associated with CBI. In addition, Government has set up cyber forensic training and investigation labs in Kerala, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Manipur and Jammu & Kashmir.

Sachin pilot said that in collaboration with Data Security Council of India (DSCI), NASSCOM. Cyber Forensic Labs have been se up at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata. DSCI has organized 112 training programmes on Cyber Crime Investigation and awareness and a total of 3680 Police officials, judiciary and Public prosecutors have been trained through these programmes.  National Law School of India University, Bangalore has also been conducting training on Cyber Law and Cyber Forensics through Judicial officers.

The Government has formulated a set of investigation manuals with procedures for Search, Seizure analysis and presentation of digital evidence in courts.  The manuals have been circulated to Law Enforcement Agencies in all States.  Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) issues alerts, advisories and guidelines regarding cyber security threats and measures to be taken to prevent cyber incidents and enhance security of Information Technology systems