‘Cybercrime cases dip 1st time since ’16’

Bhubaneswar: Cybercrime cases in Odisha came down last year, a first since 2016, according to the White Paper released by the state government on Monday. Police attributed the drop in cases to massive awareness among people regarding cyber safety.
According to the white paper, cyber offences, which had been rising since 2016, witnessed a negative growth of 2.6% with registration of 1,983 cases in 2022. In 2021, 2,037 cases were registered.
“The negative growth figure — 2.6% — may seem small, but it is a positive development for us as the state had been witnessing an upward trend in cybercrimes. Our sustained awareness drives through advertisements, text messages, audio-visual clips, meetings in educational institutions and residential areas and campaigns on social media resulted in the number of cybercrimes going down,” a senior police officer said, adding, “Our efforts in spreading awareness will continue.”
According to cyber security researcher Binayak Sahoo, cybercrime is a borderless and contactless offence where the scammers act in anonymity. “Easy access to the internet and unmonitored reach has exposed people’s vulnerability to cybercrime,” Sahoo said, adding, “Awareness is key to keeping cyber scammers at bay. Many cases, involving extortion over nude video calls for instance, go unreported as the victims hesitate to lodge complaints, apprehending damage to their reputation.”
According to a written reply by minister of state for home, Tusharkanti Behera, in the assembly on Monday, cyber crooks duped thousands of gullible people of about Rs 35 crore in the state in 2020, Rs 40 crore in 2021 and Rs 4 crore in the first two months of 2022. Behera said the government took several measures to check the incidents of cybercrime over the years. “A regional cybercrime coordination centre has been set up to deal with cyber threats. For better coordination in the investigation of interstate cyber offences, the state police have joined hands with the joint cybercrime coordination team of Jamtara (in Jharkhand) and the joint cybercrime coordination team in Visakhapatnam,” Behera’s reply said.
Odisha Police have decided to engage an academy partner to implement cyber security measures in the state. The academy partner will have multiple tasks which will include raising awareness about cyber security, conducting cyber safety audit and teaching investigative and cyber forensic lessons to the police.