According to official statistics, cases of cyber crime have increased immencly in Maharashtra and posing a big challenge for police in Maharashtra,  with the state witnessing a rise in current year compared to last year and it is presenting a major challenge to the state security & Information Technology Department.

A total of 2,945 cases of cyber crimes were registered till September this year as against 2,645 till October 2017, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, said in a written reply in the state Assembly yesterday. He said the maximum number of cyber crime cases were reported in Mumbai, though the figures were not specified in the written reply. 43 cyber labs have been declared as cyber police stations so far. Out of these, 36 cyber police stations are functioning and the remaining seven will be operational soon, he said.

Mr Fadnavis referred to a cyber crime case where hackers had managed to looted off over Rs. 94 crore through a malware attack on the server of Pune-based Cosmos Bank and cloning thousands of the bank's debit cards over a period of two days in August this year.

The cyber police stations have been provided with modern software and hardware technology tools, he said, adding that since 2016, 198 police officials have been imparted training on how to deal with cyber crimes. In September this year, principal secretary of the co-operation department held a meeting with senior officials of the police and information technology departments, and representatives of various banks in connection with the cyber crime cases, he said.

A process was on to set up a 'knowledge hub' to provide information to banks about debit card cloning and cyber attacks, the chief minister said, adding that the Pune district urban banks' association was handling the project.

What are Cyber Crimes ?

Cyber Crimes in India are registered under three broad heads, the IT Act, the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other State Level Legislations (SLL). The cases registered under the IT Act include

* Tampering computer source documents (Section 65 IT Act)

* Loss /damage to computer resource/utility (Section 66 (1) IT Act)

* Hacking (Section 66 (2) IT Act)

* Obscene publication/transmission in electronic form (Section 67 IT Act)

* Failure of compliance/orders of Certifying Authority (Section 68 I T Act)

* Failure to assist in decrypting the information intercepted by Govt Agency (Section 69 IT Act)

* Un-authorised access/attempt to access to protected computer system (Section 70 IT Act)

* Obtaining licence or Digital Signature Certificate by misrepresentation / suppression of fact (Section 71 IT Act)

* Publishing false Digital Signature Certificate (Section 73 IT Act)

* Fraud Digital Signature Certificate (Section 74 IT Act)

* Breach of confidentiality/privacy (Section 72 IT Act)

    Others

On the other hand, cases are also registered under the IPC and those include

* Offences by/against Public Servant (Section 167, 172, 173, 175 IPC)

* False electronic evidence (Section 193 IPC)

* Destruction of electronic evidence (Section 204, 477 IPC)

* Forgery (Section 463, 465, 466, 468, 469, 471, 474, 476, 477A IPC)

* Criminal Breach of Trust (Section 405, 406, 408, 409 IPC)

* Counterfeiting Property Mark (Section 482, 183, 483, 484, 485 IPC)

* Tampering (Section 489 IPC)

* Counterfeiting Currency / Stamps (Section 489A to 489E IPC)