Union Home Minister Amit Shah today described cybersecurity as an integral part of national security saying the Centre has planned to train five thousand cyber commandos in the next five years to deal with the cybercrime. He stated this while addressing the first foundation day celebration of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in New Delhi. Mr. Shah underlined that the country’s progress is not possible without cybersecurity. He asked all stakeholders to come together to deal with this menace as cybercrime has no boundary.
Highlighting the growing use of the internet in different fields, the Minister said the digital transactions and use of digital data are increasing day by day in the country which has increased the responsibilities of people involved in cyber security. Mr Shah added that the recently enacted three new criminal laws have adequate provisions to deal with the challenges related to cybercrime in the country.
Talking about the I4C’s initiative of suspect registry, the Minister, said this national level cyber suspect registry will help in preventing crimes in the future. He informed that I4C is going to launch a nationwide awareness campaign on cyber security and urged all state governments to join this campaign.
On the occasion, the Minister launched key initiatives for the protection against cybercrime and dedicated the Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre to the nation. He launched the web-based module Samanvaya, a platform for cybercrime data repository, sharing, mapping, and analytics, as well as a coordination tool for law enforcement agencies. The Cyber Commandos programme, establishing a wing of trained specialists in states and UTs and central police organizations was also inaugurated to enhance cybersecurity. Mr. Shah also unveiled the Suspect Registry, a new initiative to strengthen fraud risk management by creating a registry of identifiers based on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal in collaboration with banks and financial intermediaries.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre was established in October 2018 under the Central Sector Scheme within the Cyber and Information Security Division of the Ministry of Home Affairs.