Cyber-crime cases in India almost doubled in 2017

NEW DELHI : Cybercrimes in India almost doubled in 2017, according to statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). The data comes in the backdrop of India aspiring to become a trillion dollar digital economy. Interestingly, cybercrimes accounted for less than a percentage (0.43%) or 21,796 cases of a total of 50,07,044 cognizable crimes in 2017.

According to NCRB, which released the statistics late on Monday, “During 2017, 56.0% of cyber-crime cases registered were for the motive of fraud (12,213 out of 21,796 cases) followed by sexual exploitation with 6.7% (1,460 cases) and causing disrepute with 4.6% (1,002 cases).”

With the Centre scrambling to fortify India’s cyber operations amid growing warnings of malware attacks on personal and organizational devices, intelligence and cyber law experts have said much like crimes against women, India suffers from dismal under-reporting of cybercrimes.