Daily Post 3001
DIGITAL ARREST DATA – KARNATAKA ON TOP
Digital arrest has been on the centre stage for quite some time now. For all the racket it generates in various mediums in the public domain, its surge remains unabated. While governments spend hundreds and thousands of crores for making known what they have done by way of advertisements, in ways which can beat corporate branding, when it comes to worthwhile things, it just goes missing. The message that the Digital Arrest does not exist has not been carried home by the government’s media effort. Is such a media blitzkrieg so difficult in the world infested with catchy multimedia formats, endless information and instant communication.
It seems the effort is missing, and the result is for everyone to see. India’s leading IT state Karnataka should have fared well in communicating to its at least its well-educated, modern and tech savvy crowd. Ironically, they have been the main victims. Today Karnataka accounts for more than 25% of all digital arrest scams in the country, when we should be amongst the lowest, given the education and tech wherewithal we rightly boast of. Money lost has also been quite substantial, Rs.109 crores lost to cybercrimes this year. Bengaluru remains on the top, 480, the total loss being a whopping Rs.42.4 crores.
Let’s put it in the right perspective of the overall cybercrimes. India has reported 42,000 cybercrime cases, of which 11,000 comes from Karnataka. The state has recorded 641 digital arrest cases till date. Bengaluru leads the race with Mysore and Mangalore second and third, with 24 and 21 cases respectively. Police have been able to recover just Rs.9 crores (8.25%) and arrest only 27 individuals linked to these crimes. Given the scenario as it has evolved, it does not give enough confidence that we are on the right track on any front; intelligence, prevention, investigation or recovery, not to speak of the failure on the mass communication part as well.
At the core of it all besides other things, mule accounts are the favored route of money being siphoned off. The pace and precision has to be seen to be believed. It outeats our banking system hollow. Have we decided to remain bystanders? We cannot find ways and means to deactivate mule accounts leave aside the incapability to stop opening of such accounts. What are the business logic changes to be done in core banking software, no one is ready to even talk about. We don’t even hear any murmur from the banking industry. Any number of other guardrails can be put; digital and otherwise. To a lesser level, but similar is the story of the telcos, who can play a great supporting role in sorting out this digital logjam. Of the digital platforms the less said the better.
IS DIGITAL ARREST SURGING AHEAD TO BECOME INDIA’S RANSOMWARE?
Sanjay Sahay