Cybercrime cases double in 2017, 56% cybercrime cases for fraud motive: NCRB 2017 Report

Cybercrimes in India almost doubled in 2017, according to statistics released by the National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) on October 22. Cybercrime accounted for less than a percentage (0.43%) or 21,796 cases of a total of 50 lakh cognizable crimes in India. Karnataka had the highest rate of cybercrime, followed by Assam, Telangana, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. India recorded over 9,500, 11,500 and 12,000 cases of cybercrime in 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively. The data for 2017 comes after a two-year delay, with the Centre blaming states in providing statistics for compilation.

As per the report, “During 2017, 56% 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).”

Publishing/transmitting of material containing sexually explicit under the IT Act: NCRB has divided this section into three parts. The first two, Section 67A, Section 67B of the IT Act, deal with publishing/transmitting sexually explicit content and depiction of children in a sexually explicit way respectively, in electronic form. The exact offence for the third section was not clearly specified in the report.

The total number of offenses under the IT Act was the highest in Uttar Pradesh, followed by Karnataka (3,152), Rajasthan (950), Assam (941) and Maharashtra (586). However, the total number of offenses under the IT Act across the country stood at 13,635.

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Cyberstalking or bullying of women/children (Sec 354D IPC)

North-eastern states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura did not have any registered cases related to cyberstalking or cyberbullying. 

Cases related to violation of privacy in cyberspace under the IT Act: In 2017, Assam had the highest number of cases (60) registered for violation of privacy. On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh had 47 such cases, Karnataka had 38, Kerala had 35 and Maharashtra had 22 registered cases. States such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Goa, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir (now union territories), Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Tripura, and Punjab did not have any case registered related to violation of privacy on the internet. The total number of such cases registered was 245.

Cyber terrorism (Section 66F) under the IT Act: There were 13 registered cases related to cyber terrorism across the country. Himachal Pradesh had 5 registered cases related to cyber terrorism, which was the highest in the country. While Assam had 4, other states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal had 1 each.

Frauds related to ATM, online banking, One Time Password (OTP) under section 465, 468-471 IPC

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Fake news on social media (Sec. 505) under the IT Act: Section 505 of the IPC is for statements conducing to public mischief. As per the report, a total of 170 cases were registered for cases related to fake news on social media platforms. List for the top five states has been given below: 

Online gambling under the IT Act cases: States such as Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Tripura did account for any registered case for online gambling. Details for the top five states have been given in the table below:

It is worth noting that the central government had set-up the National Informatics Centre – Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the Home Ministry had set up the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (14C) to combat cybercrime in the country.

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