350% Surge in Cyber Crimes in Last 3 Years

350% Surge in Cyber Crimes in Last 3 Years is a Hindustan Times report published on 20 January 2015. The article examines National Crime Records Bureau statistics showing registered cyber crimes in India increased from 966 in 2010 to 4,356 in 2013, highlighting inadequacies in existing legal frameworks and the demographic profile of offenders.

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Article Details

📰 Published in:: Hindustan Times
📅 Date:: 20 January 2015
👤 Authors:: Devanik Saha
📄 Type:: News Report
📰 Newspaper Link:: Read Online

Full Text

India's registered cyber crimes leapt 350% in three years but the legal system is struggling to cope with more and more lawbreakers exploiting the anonymity of the internet.

National Crime Records Bureau statistics show the number of recorded cases of cyber crime jumped to 4,356 from 966 in the three years up to 2013, with India being more susceptible to digital attacks because of the increasing number of net users in the fast-growing economy.

"Illegal gains" and "harassment" are the top cyber crime motives, the data reveal, though the majority of the crimes were registered under the "others" category — 2,144 cases in 2013. Analysts say such a high number of cases being pigeonholed in this section implies current laws and regulations aren't detailed enough to tackle cyber crime. The challenge is daunting for India — estimated to have 302 million internet users by the end-2014 and set to have the second largest number of netizens in the world after China this year.

Data show that the age group of 18-30 accounts for the highest percentage of cyber crime with 1,638 persons arrested out of 3,301 in 2013. The surge in cyber crime may also have been brought on by inefficiencies in the legal system with activists challenging some cyber laws considered too draconian for a modern, democratic society.

Various sections of the IT Act were deeply flawed as they were "copy-paste jobs" from British and American laws, said Sunil Abraham, founder-director of Bengaluru-based Centre for Internet & Society. To prevent such abuses, the Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that arrests could only be made after clearance from an inspector general of police in a city and a superintendent of police in a district.

(Devanik Saha is Data Editor at The Political Indian; Indiaspend.org is a data-driven, public-interest journalism non-profit)

Context and Background

This report appeared during a period of rapid internet penetration in India, with the country approaching 302 million users by the end of 2014 and on course to become the world’s second-largest internet market after China. The steep rise in recorded cyber crimes—from 966 cases in 2010 to 4,356 in 2013—reflected both increasing digital activity and growing vulnerabilities in an expanding online ecosystem.

A significant issue highlighted was the inadequacy of existing legal classifications, with over 2,144 cases in 2013 categorised simply as “others”, suggesting that the IT Act lacked sufficient granularity to address evolving forms of digital offending. Critics argued that portions of the IT Act had been adapted from British and American legislation without sufficient contextualisation for India’s legal and social environment, resulting in provisions that were either too broad or poorly suited to addressing specific cyber threats.

The demographic data revealed that young adults aged 18-30 accounted for nearly half of all arrests in 2013, underscoring generational patterns in both digital adoption and cyber criminality. In response to concerns about misuse of certain provisions, the Supreme Court introduced procedural safeguards in 2013, requiring senior police approval before arrests could be made under cyber laws, an attempt to balance enforcement with protection against arbitrary detention.