15,779 Indian Websites Were Hacked From Jan-Nov 2018: Prasad

Parliament of India was informed on Wednesday that more than 15,700 Indian websites were reportedly hacked just from January to November this year.

According to Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the data gathered by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team, (CERT-In) revealed that 15,779, 30,067 and 33,147 websites in India were hacked in 2018 (up to November), 2017 and 2016, respectively.

Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

He also said that the Indian government has already taken a few measures to improve the cybersecurity and also limit and stop cyber attacks to happen in India.

The government has already formulated a Crisis Management Plan as an attempt to counter cyber terrorism and cyber attacks for implementation by all departments/ministries of the state governments and the central government, and their organizations as well as critical sectors.

He also said that CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) issues advisories and alerts regarding latest cyber threats and also countermeasures on a regular basis and also exercises on cybersecurity are regularly conducted to enable preparedness and cybersecurity’s assessment of organization in critical sectors and government.

Minister of State for Electronics and IT, SS Ahluwalia, said that in a three-year span from 2014 to 2016, there had been 9622, 11592 and 12,317 cybercrime cases registered, respectively, according to the data of NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau).

“This includes cases registered under the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 and related sections of Indian Penal Code and Special & Local Laws involving computer as a medium/target,” said Ahluwalia.

He also added that in 2016, 2017 and up to November 2018, there were 3, 14 and 6 incidents of financial fraud happened, respectively, which affected cards, ATM, UPI (Unified Payment Interface), and PoS (point of sale) systems were registered.

He also further said that the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) has been aware of 921, 2059, 1372 and 1191 fraud case involving Internet Banking, Credit cards, and ATM/Debit Cards in 2018 (up to the end of September), 2017, 2016 and 2016.