According to the state government’s data, while 2,654 cyber crimes were reported in the state till October 2017, they were increased to 2,945 by September 2018.

Mumbai: Despite taking various measures to curb them, the proportion of cyber crimes in the state is rising. While the number of cyber crimes in the year 2017 was 2,654, it has grown further up to 2,945 this year.

According to the state government’s data, while 2,654 cyber crimes were reported in the state till October 2017, they were increased to 2,945 by September 2018. The highest number of crimes has been reported in the state capital, Mumbai.

On 10 August this year, hackers had hacked the ATM server in Cosmos Bank headquarters at Pune and withdrew Rs 94.42 crore from ATMs in 29 countries including India. Raising the issue in the state Legislative Assembly, BJP MLA Amal Mahadik and others had expressed concern over the growing cyber crimes in the state.

Replying to them, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis spoke about a slew of measures undertaken by the state government to curb cyber crimes.

“From August 15, 2016, 47 cyber labs have been formed in all the districts and police commissionerates. For the speedy action and investigation into cyber crimes, 43 cyber labs have been provided with the status of cyber police stations. Of them, 36 cyber police stations have been commissioned, whereas seven are in the process of getting commissioned,” he said.

All the cyber labs and police stations have been provided state-of-the-art machinery (software and hardware). In addition to this, Intellinex tool is being used to carry out the investigation into call detail records (CDR)/subscriber detail records (SDR).

For the implementation of measures to curb the cyber attacks, a meeting was organised in September this year in Matunga. Several top officials like the principal secretary (co-operation), special inspector general of police (cyber), principal secretary (information technology), representatives of all urban co-operative banks and district central co-operative banks and cyber intelligence and security officers of these banks or IT experts participated in the meeting. All the urban co-operative banks have been directed to take the necessary measures to prevent cyber attacks, said Mr Fadnavis.