The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) identified and blocked over 1,700 Skype IDs and 59,000 WhatsApp accounts used for Digital Arrest, the Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai told Lok Sabha that till November 15, more than 6.69 lakh SIM cards and 1,32,000 IMEIs as reported by police authorities have also been blocked by the Central government.
Responding to a query on cyber frauds and crimes from K. Eswarasamy of DMK, MoS Rai said, "The Ministry has set up the I4C as an attached office to deal with all types of cyber crimes in the country, in a coordinated and comprehensive manner.
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is also running an automated cyber threat exchange platform for collecting, analyzing, and sharing tailored alerts with organizations across sectors for taking proactive threat mitigation actions, he said.
To spread awareness of cybercrime, the Central Government has taken steps like dissemination of messages through SMS, I4C social media account on X (formerly Twitter) (@CyberDost), Facebook (NASDAQ:META)(CyberDostI4C), Instagram (cyberDostI4C), Telegram (cyberdosti4c), Radio campaign, engaged MyGov for publicity in multiple mediums, organising Cyber Safety and Security Awareness weeks in association with States/UTs, publishing of handbook for adolescents/students, digital displays on railway stations and airports, he said.
Under the 'Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC)' Scheme, the Ministry of Home Affairs has given financial aid of Rs 131.60 crore to States/UTs for their capacity building like setting up cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, recruitment of junior cyber consultants and training of personnel of law enforcing agencies, public prosecutors and judicial officers, he added.
MoS said that 891 Judicial Officers, 395 Public Prosecutors, 12 Forensics Experts and 2,180 law enforcers have been trained by I4C in matters of cybercrime prevention, awareness and investigation forensics.
Cyber hygiene training has been given to 7,330 officials of various ministries/departments of the Central government by I4C.
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