Cybercrime Situation Worsening in Assam

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Assam, more often than not, tops on many a front for all the wrong reasons. And one such example is cybercrime. However, the cause of concern is that the State seems to perform poorly on this score.

The NCRB (National Crime Record Bureau) has released its crime data of 2017 recently. The cybercrime rate is the number of cybercrimes taking place per one lakh population. The data show the number of cybercrimes in Assam in 2017 at 1,120 cases with a rate of 3.4 against the all-India rate of 1.7. Assam has been placed second, next to only Karnataka in cybercrimes.

This is a clear deterioration of the cybercrime situation in the State from what it was in 2016. In 2016 the State had 696 cases of cybercrimes. In all-India ranking, the State was ranked seventh in that year.

Even as the NCRB is yet to release the cybercrime rates and rankings of 2018, according to information given by sources in the State CID the situation in the State has worsened further. According to CID sources, in 2018 Assam had as many as 1,517 cybercrime-related cases registered. The trend seems even worse in 2019. According to the CID sources, as many as 1,106 cybercrime-related cases have already been registered in the State in the first six months of this year.

The major targets of cybercriminals are banks and other financial institutions. According to CID sources, the cybercriminals active in Assam have their links with cybercriminal outside the State and abroad. The technologies change apace, so do cybercriminals. The policing, on the other hand, is lagging behind as the police continues with a technology for a few years at a stretch.

The arrest of two Turkey nationals from Mumbai recently in ATM hacking cases in Guwahati bears testimony to the threat to the State from cybercriminals. According to the police, the cybercriminals siphoned off cash from ATMs through ATM-cloning devices installed in Guwahati.

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