Cyber crime rate increases post demonetisation

featured imagePost demonetisation, incidents of cyber crime, especially net banking and debit/credit card frauds, have increased phenomenally in the city. After demonetisation, that was announced on November 8 last year, the use of credit or debit cards for cashless transactions has increased and this is leading to more number of frauds, says a senior police officer. The total number of cyber crimes recorded in 2015 was 359 and net banking frauds were 199. In 2016 the total number was 442, while the net banking frauds stood at 255 and this year till the end of September the total cyber crimes recorded was 410 and net banking accounted for 211. “The increase is steady and we receive at least two to three complaints on a daily basis. Many people who have been cheated for smaller amounts do not even approach us,” says Commissioner of Police T. Yoganand. http://railsgirls.org According to the CP, in the last three months, the cyber cell recorded over 180 cases. “As we move towards cashless mode of transactions, cyber crimes are bound to increase, which includes hacking and phishing, card frauds and online hacking of bank accounts,” says P.V.G. D. Prasada Reddy, Head of the Department of Computer Science Engineering, Andhra University. Before the scheme was announced, the cyber security area should have been addressed. “With so many apps being launched, we are entering a dangerous area, as the security is being compromised,” he adds. With society moving towards the cashless mode of transactions, the threat of external intruders is more and there is an urgent need to plug the holes, says Krishna Sastry Pendyala, former cyber security scientist of Government of India. DCP (crime) Shemushi Bajpai said, there is also the concern of bank data being compromised by the outsourced employees and this is adding to the threat. With the economy going cashless, online platforms, e-Wallets, online bank transactions, card transactions and payment apps will be used more extensively. “In such a scenario, we need to strengthen our security system to keep fraudsters at bay. It is advisable to use the virtual keyboard and cards over conventional ones, as they are more secure. We quickly need to migrate from the magnetic chip model to dynamic cryptography,” says Shemushi.

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