More than 50,000 cyber security incidents like phishing, website intrusions and defacement, virus and denial of service attacks were observed in the country during 2016, Parliament was informed today. “As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 44,679, 49,455 and 50,362 cyber security incidents were observed during the year 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively,” Minister of State for Electronics and IT P P Chaudhary said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

He added that the types of cyber security incidents included phishing, scanning/probing, website intrusions and defacements, virus/malicious code and denial of service attacks. “With the proliferation of Information Technology and related services, there is a rise in instances of cyber crimes in the country like elsewhere in the world,” he said.

As per the data maintained by National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), a total of 5,693, 9,622 and 11,592 cybercrime cases were registered during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively, showing a rise of 69 per cent during 2013 to 2014 and 20 per cent during 2014 to 2015. “This includes cases registered under the IT Act, 2000 and related sections of Indian Penal Code and Special and local laws involving compouter as a medium/target. Similar data for the year 2016 is under collection,” he said.

Also, RBI has registered a total of 9,500, 13,083, 16,468 and 8,689 cases of frauds involving credit cards, ATM/debit cards and internet banking during the year 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 (upto December 2016), respectively. Further, CBI has registered a total of 87 cases during 2014 to 2016. Out of these 87 cases, charge sheets have been filed in 36 cases, status report filed in copmpettent court in 4 cases, 6 cases were closed and 41 cases are under investigation by CBI.

Besides, 4,699 and 6,266 cases were registered during the year 2014 and 2015, respectively for stalking women (Section 354D IPC) during 2014-15, as per data maintained by NCRB. This is a rise of 25 per cent during 2014 to 2015. The Minister said a total number of 28,481 websites were hacked in 2013, 32,323 (2014), 27,205 (2015) and 33,147 (2016).

“It has been observed attacks are launched through compromised computer systems located in different parts of the world. Masquerading techniques and hidden servers are also used to hide the identity of the actual systems being used by malicious actors,” he said. The attacks are observed to be originating from various countries including China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Romania, the UK, the US, Syria, the UAE and Italy, he added.