BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): A quantum jump in cyber crimes and frauds has been one of the unwelcome side-effects of Covid pandemic. The increased dependence on the internet for everything ranging from education to financial transactions to work from home has given cyber criminals an opportunity to exploit people. It is boom time for them, say cyber experts.
According to cyber expert Yashdeep Chaturvedi, cyber crimes have increased 3-4 times after advent of the pandemic. There has been big jump in online child abuse, financial frauds and honey trap. ìIn Bhopal, at least 200 online financial frauds are committed every month,î he said. Chaturvedi said three fraud cases involving Rs 18 lakh, Rs. 20 lakh and Rs 54 lakh were handed over to him for investigation in the last one month.
Neither the police nor the banks are taking cyber frauds seriously. 'Since 2013, the cyber fraudsters havenít changed their modus operandi. But still they are succeeding. This means that in last 9 nine years, the banks havenít updated their systems to make committing fraud difficult, if not impossible,' he added.
He said increased dependence on online classes has made children vulnerable to cyber bullying and abuse. ìWhile we are teaching our children how to use computers and mobiles we are not teaching them how to use these devices safely. Cyber security is not being taught in schools,î he remarked.
'For instance, when we teach a child how to send and receive emails, we should also teach him or her that it is a crime to send defamatory or abusive emails. When we teach them how to improve or enhance photographs using software, we should also tell them that morphing photographs is a crime,' Chaturvedi added.
Since 2020, he has been running a campaign with the help of the state education department to educate students of classes 9-12 in cyber security. 'So far, we have trained 6,000 students,' he told Free Press.
IT consultant Hemraj Singh Chouhan said with most employees working from home, things have become easier for cyber criminals. It is easier to penetrate the system of a person working from home than the systems in offices, which are more secure and use the latest technology. 'That has pushed up cases of data theft,' he said.
SP, cyber cell, Bhopal, Amit Kumar said 10 to 20 per cent of the cyber crimes are related to teleshopping. People's dependence on the internet has increased and due to this the cases of teleshopping frauds through customer care have increased.
'We have a regular helpline number 94799 90636 to curb frauds. People can call on the number and get their complaints registered,' he said, adding that they also raised awareness about cyber crimes through colleges and banks.
