Centre unveils comprehensive cybersecurity plan with AI integration and 5,000 cyber commandos
Amit Shah pointed at the need for better cooperation between the central and the state level agencies in the fight against cybercrime.
While addressing the inaugural session of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) foundation day, Union Home Minister Amit Shah emphasized that cybercrime cannot be effectively tackled without leveraging the power of Artificial Intelligence. He urged cybersecurity agencies to incorporate AI into their cybersecurity plan for enhanced pattern recognition in cases of fraud, cyberbullying, and fake news. Shah highlighted that India processes 46% of the global digital transactions, underscoring the complexity of the challenge faced by these agencies, as PTI discovered.
The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), was established in 2018 following the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) coordinating the fight against cybercrime in India at the national level. At a recent event, Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated four key initiatives under the I4C: the Cyber Fraud Mitigation Centre (CFMC), the ‘Samanvaya’ platform, cyber commandos programme and lastly a suspect list. The said platforms are intended for increasing the country’s ability to deal with different types of cyber threats.
Amit Shah stated “I would urge you to use Artificial Intelligence to identify the MO (modus operandi) deployed (by criminals)…this will help (you) to find new ways to fight cyber crimes.”
Enhancing Digital Infrastructure as Part of the Cybersecurity Plan
Amit Shah urged cybersecurity agencies to lose the ‘need to know’ culture and adopt a ‘duty to share’ approach to enhance the measures in tackling cybercrime. In this regard, the minister showed statistics of internet and cyber usage where India was one of the fastest-growing countries and, therefore, an increase in sharing information among the agencies.
Shah pointed out that in 2014, around 600 panchayats had internet connection and the data in hand showed that in recent periods the connectivity had reached up to 2.13 Lakh. Currently, there are 13 lakh broadband connections while there are little over 3 lakh fixed connections, the understanding of development in rural broadband is evident. He said “We have 95 crore Internet users in the country as of March 31 as compared to 25 crore during the same time period in 2014.”
Amit Shah emphasised the progress made in India’s Digital Infrastructure that has been put up with over seven lakh kilometre of optical fibre cable, increase in Data download speed, and reduced cost. He also demonstrated that there was a 78% rise in Internet consumption. According to some statistics, in 2024 India made the following UPI transactions of about Rs 20.64 lakh crore which accounts for 46 percent of the global digital transactions, this shows India’s rising supremacy as a payment hub.
Amit Shah also pointed to a rising trend of cyber fraud especially due to exploitation of the internet which has become a significant part and parcel of the Indian population. He voiced concerns over matters that include the selling of people’s data without their consent, fake news and information, cyber bullying as well as other cases of women and children abuse. Shah also supported a separate campaign to begin from Wednesday that would spread the message on cybercrimes and the ‘1930’ national cyber helpline that is being run by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C).He said “We need to do more against this (cybercrimes)… we have reached a point but the target is far.”
However, Mr. Amit Shah, Home Minister of India also highlighted in the same event that there is a dire necessity of effective countermeasure against cybercrimes claiming that without security in cyberspace is imperative for India’s growth. He pointed out the fact that living in the 21 st century, the progress of the country can not be imagined without the protection of cybersecurity. He stated “The increasing use of technology is also causing many threats. That is why cybersecurity is no longer limited to the digital world but has also become an important aspect of national security.”
Amit Shah pointed at the need for better cooperation between the central and the state level agencies stating that the fight against cybercrime cannot be conducted by a single agency. He called on all parties involved to embark on actions towards this, pointing out that and cyber crimes do not recognize boundaries and that there is need to create awareness at raw level. Shah further urged the state governments come out strongly on the awareness creation on cyber issues as there have emerged new sophisticated cyber frauds among them being frauds that target children. He also laid down the strategy of the government to produce 5,000 cyber commandos to insulate the country from the increasing threats
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