The government will set up a new nodal agency called the Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) aimed at safeguarding digital transactions, it said in a statement. While the Finance Ministry's Financial Intelligence Unit is a nodal agency that takes care of money laundering activity based on reporting by significant financial services entities, the DIU will be responsible for ensuring that telecom service providers comply with various technology safeguards and coordinate with other entities to curb digital transaction frauds, the government said. On Monday, Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Communications and Law and Justice, chaired a high-level meeting to begin work on the DIU. As more payments and financial transactions take place over the mobile and the cellular networks, the space for cyber-security threats and fraudulent activities has increased in the last few years. These include unsolicited messages on mobile phones, harrasment, fraudulent loan transactions and other activities The DIU will coordinate between Local Service Area players, financial institutions and telecom service providers to investigate fraudulent activiy that involves telecom resources, the statement said. During the meeting, Prasad directed the officials to take strict action against telemarketers and individuals involved in harassment of telecom subscribers in addition to action to stop fradulent lending operations by unregulated fly-by-the night operators. "It was decided that for effective handling of Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) and also the financial frauds being done through misuse of telecom resources,a web/ mobile application and SMS based system shall be developed for redressal mechanism.…
