Cyber crimes can derail nation's development: Vice President Dhankhar

Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday cautioned that cyber crimes can derail a nation's development and called for a convergence of efforts and institutions to deal with the threat.

He called for a need to further educate people to protect data to prevent them from falling victims of cyber crimes.

Addressing a conference on cyber security organised by a think tank here, Vice President Dhankhar felt that there was a need to extend legal aid to victims of cyber fraud as they could have lost all their finances to cyber criminals.

Referring to the exponential growth of the country's economy, he said "derailment can take place when we are not prepared for such kind of crimes, such kind of incursions".

Likening cyber security to railway tracks, he said if one track is faulty, accident could take place.

The vice president said people fall prey to "rogue elements" due to lack of knowledge and added there was a need to ensure that people do not get "disheartened" by cyber crimes.

He also pitched for more research and development to make systems as impregnable as possible from cyber attacks.