To avoid falling victim to scammers, the Hyderabad police have urged government agencies to practice cyber hygiene and implement cyber security measures.
Following incidents in which fraudsters attempted to steal funds or data by targeting the databases of public sector undertakings (PSUs) and a few government organizations, the advice was issued.
According to Dr. Gajarao Bhupal, Joint Commissioner of Police for the Detective Division, government departments and other organizations have been asked to practice good cyber hygiene.
“Employees should be able to differentiate between phishing emails and regular mail. They should know the fundamentals, such as not clicking on emails from sources they don’t know. Safety measures such as installing cyber security software will help to prevent hacking,” he said.
The police have requested that cyber security teams be established to protect offices dealing with financial transactions or security-related issues from cyber or ransomware attacks.
“Departments dealing in money, PSU banks, government treasuries, and government agencies need advanced cyber security systems. Coordination with other significant agencies is being established to raise awareness,” said an official.
The Mahesh Bank case, in which fraudsters sent phishing emails and duped employees into opening them, was one of many cited by authorities. The gang was able to gain access to the server via the gateway and conduct transactions while stealing large sums of money.
“The police spent about Rs 58 lakh on the case’s investigation. Consider how much money the government wastes due to negligence,” the senior official said.
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Cybercrime on the rise
The city of Hyderabad, which is also an IT hub, has now emerged as a major center for cybercrime. According to National Crime Record Bureau NCRB data, Telangana contributed about 10% to the country’s total cyber fraud in 2020.
In Telangana, at a rate of 13.4 cases per lakh population, the number of cybercrimes shot up from 2,691 cases in 2019 to 5,024 in 2020, according to the NCRB’s Crime in India-2020 report.
Telangana experienced a twofold increase in cybercrime in 2021. During the year, 8,828 cases of cybercrime were reported. In these cases, 5,833 were major offenses, and 1,191 were cases of online fraud and impersonation.
The Hyderabad Police alone reported 5,646 cybercrimes in 2020, compared to 1,379 in 2019. According to Hyderabad Police Commissioner C.V. Anand, every fifth First Information Report (FIR) in Hyderabad pertains to cybercrime. Around 100 FIRs are filed each day in the city, and about 20 percent of them are related to cyber crimes such as social media fraud, financial fraud, hacking and sexual harassment.
About 45 percent of all cybercrime cases involve UPI scams, followed by 15 percent by OTP fraud, phone customer service, investment fraud, and other forms of cybercrime.
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