Vijayawada: Economic offences and cyber crime in Andhra Pradesh are on the rise, causing concern to the state police department. While economic offences increased by 41 per cent, cyber crime cases went up by 55 per cent in 2015 compared to 2014, having increased by 30 per cent till the middle of 2016. In 2015, economic offences increased by 41 per cent, and the quantum of money involved was staggering. As compared to Rs 398.35 crore involved in economic offences in 2014, the amount involved in 2015 was Rs 7,505.72 crore.
The 55 per cent increase in cyber crime cases -- vis-a-vis in the previous year -- has become a worrying factor for the Andhra police. As many as 670 cases were registered in 2015 as against 410 cases in 2014 and around 600 cases till the mid of 2016.
According to study reports by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), in the year 2014, the number of cyber crimes registered were 1,49,254, which doubled in 2015 to around 2,98,761 cases. This is expected to further double in 2016, with 12,456 cases registered. Rising Internet penetration and online banking have made India a favourite among cyber criminals who target online financial transactions, using malicious software (malware). India ranked third after Japan and the US in the list of countries most affected by online banking malware during 2015, the study said.
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have seen the highest number of cyber crimes registered under the new IT Act in India, and statistics say that these three states together contribute more than 70 per cent to Indias revenue from IT and IT’-related industries. State DGP J.V. Ramudu told Deccan Chronicle on his last working day as DGP, that the state police were facing a major problem in curbing cyber crime, fighting crime in the physical world was a lot more easy than doing it in the virtual.
“We could become easy targets of the dark net and fall prey to terror elements like ISIS, if necessary precautions are not taken. Hence, one of our main focus areas is better cyber crime detection mechanisms and creating more awareness among people about it,” he said. His department has also sent its staff for training to private agencies that were concentrating more on adopting the latest technologies for better and more effective policing and crime control mec-hanisms. Mr Ramudu pointed out that economic offences had increased due to prominent cases like Agrigold, Abhayagold and Keshav Reddy schools. “Cyber crimes cannot be 100 per cent solved in some cases, and it’s sometimes very hard to sneak up on them,” he added.
