HM Amit Shah urges security agencies to use AI for checking cybercrimes

Union Home Minister Amit Shah Tuesday urged cybersecurity agencies to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify the modus operandi of criminals duping people of their hard-earned money, spreading fake news and abusing women and children online.

India hosts around 46 per cent or almost half of global digital transactions, making the job of these agencies "challenging", he said while delivering a keynote speech during the first foundation day celebrations of the I4C or Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre here.

The I4C, established in 2018, is a department under the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). It is tasked with establishing a national-level coordination centre to address all cybercrime-related issues in the country.

 

During the event, Shah launched four platforms of the I4C -- cyber fraud mitigation centre (CFMC), the 'Samanvaya' platform, a cyber commandos programme and a suspect registry.

"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 cybercrimes," the home minister said.

He urged the cyber security agencies to shun the age-old protocol of "need to know" and adopt the "duty to share" approach to take forward this fight.

He cited some figures to show how Internet and cyber penetration has increased in the country.

"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," Shah said, adding that in 2014, as many as 600 panchayats were linked to the Internet but the has reached 2.13 lakh now.

Seven-lakh km of optical fibre cable has been laid, data download speed has increased, the cost has decreased and the Internet consumption has risen 78 per cent over a period of time, he said.

The home minister said that in 2024, India saw UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions worth about Rs 20,64,000 crore which is 46 per cent of the global digital transactions.

"This makes our work challenging and hence protection against cyber fraud is required," Shah said and flagged issues such as the illegal sale of important personal data over the Internet, the spread of fake news, tool kits, online harassment and abuse of women and children.

The minister said the '1930' national cyber helpline telephone number needs to be popularised during a special campaign being launched by the I4C from Wednesday to spread awareness about cybercrimes.

"We need to do more against this (cybercrimes)... we have reached a point but the target is far," he said.

At the event, the home minister spoke at length about the importance of preparing effective counter-measures against cybercrimes while asserting that the country's development was "impossible in current times" without keeping cybersecurity in mind.

"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," he said.

Shah urged for "greater coordination" between the agencies of the centre and the states as this combat cannot be undertaken by one organisation alone. It is essential that "everyone comes together", he said.

Cybercrimes see "no boundary" and common people should be made aware of these offences, the Union home minister said. "I appeal to all state governments to join this movement and ensure that cyber awareness percolates to the grassroots level."

Stressing the importance of vigorously running awareness campaigns, Shah said newer cyber frauds were being witnessed each day and even children are getting involved in these.

The government has planned to train and prepare 5,000 cyber commandos over the next five years to deal with such crimes, he added.