Let’s talk about crime – on Cyber Crimes

Source: The post is based on the article “Let’s talk about crime” published in Business Standard on 11^th March 2023.

Syllabus: GS 3 – Cyber Security

Relevance: Cyber-crimes and measures to prevent them

News: The article discusses the increasing cyber-crimes and measures to deal with it.

How do cyber-crimes possess threats to people?

The incident of cybercrimes has increased with the time and the digitalization has further given the advantage to the scammers.

Scammers usually pretend to be from a bank or a fintech company and ask for information from the account holders. They have also developed fake apps/websites that look like real bank apps/websites.

So, multiple ways are being adopted to trap people in the scam and those who get trapped in the scam end up losing money.

Moreover, it is also not easy to trace the scammers because they disappear without leaving a trace. The process of filing a cyber-crime complaint is also difficult for non-tech people. 

What can be done to prevent cyber-crimes by the Financial Institutions?

First, they need to spread awareness and talk about the issue to the general public.

Second, they should take several measures to publicise the issue. For example, everyone opening a new bank account should receive mandatory warnings about not getting trapped into the scam.

They should also message regularly on social media about the common scams and how to avoid them.

Third, Financial institutions need to lobby authorities to make it easier to file cybercrime complaints.

Fourth, they also need to explore ways to make it more difficult for criminals to scam people.