Union home minister Amit Shah said on Tuesday said as many as 5,000 cyber commandos, a core group of highly trained police officers who instantly respond to and prevent cyber-attacks in the country, will be ready in the next five years.
Speaking at the first foundation day of the I4C (Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre), Shah said, “We will have 5,000 cyber commandos in five years. These commandos will respond to cyber threats swiftly”.
Terming cyber security as part of the national security, Shah said “country’s growth is not possible without ensuring cyber security.”
The home minister also inaugurated a ‘suspect registry’, where details of criminals involved in cyber and online financial frauds will be stored at one place and can be accessed by the states, union territories, central investigation and intelligence agencies. The registry has been created based on National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), in collaboration with banks and financial intermediaries for strengthening fraud risk management capabilities of financial ecosystem.
“If the states/union territories have data in silos, then it won’t help us in the fight against cyber criminals who have no boundaries. The time has come that a common registry for suspects is there,” Shah said, adding that all stakeholders will have to come together to deal with the menace.
At the event, Shah also dedicated a Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC) to the country.
The CFMC has been established at I4C with representatives of major banks, financial intermediaries, payment aggregators, telecom service providers, IT intermediaries and states/UTs law enforcement agencies (LEAs).
“They will work together for immediate action and seamless cooperation to tackle online financial crimes. CFMC will serve as an example of cooperative federalism in law enforcement,” according to a statement by the ministry of home affairs (MHA).
Besides, the home minister also launched the Samanvaya platform (a Joint cybercrime investigation facilitation system). This web-based module will act as a one-stop portal for data repository of cybercrime, data sharing, crime mapping, data analytics, cooperation and coordination platform for LEAs across the country.
I4C was established on October 5, 2018, under the central sector scheme within the Cyber and Information Security Division (CIS Division) of the MHA.
Its primary objective was to establish a national-level coordination centre for addressing all issues related to cybercrime across the country. It helps in enhancing the capabilities of LEAs and improve coordination among various stake holders dealing with cybercrime.
