New Delhi. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday urged cyber security agencies to use artificial intelligence (AI) to tackle cyber crimes. He said that the agencies should use AI to identify the modus operandi of criminals who cheat people of their hard-earned money, spread fake news and abuse women and children online.
Addressing the foundation day function of the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) here, he said that India has about 46 percent or almost half of the global digital transactions, making the work of these agencies “challenging”. ‘I4C’, established in the year 2018, is a department under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Its job is to establish a national level coordination center to solve all issues related to cyber crime in the country.
The Home Minister said, “I would urge you to identify the modus operandi adopted by criminals using AI… This will help you find new ways to fight cyber crimes.” Presenting some statistics, he explained how internet and cyber access has increased in the country. Shah said, “As of March 31, the number of internet users in the country was 95 crore, whereas during the same period in 2014, this number was 25 crore.” The minister said that there is a need to popularize the national cyber helpline telephone number ‘1930’ during a special campaign being launched by ‘I4C’ from Wednesday to spread awareness about cyber crimes.
He said, “We need to make more efforts against it (cyber crime)… we have reached a point, but the goal is still far away.” Describing cyber security as an integral part of national security, Shah said that the country’s progress is not possible without cyber security. Shah also said in a program that cyber crime has no boundaries and hence it is important that all parties deal with this problem together.
He said, “With the increasing use of technology, many types of threats are also arising. This is the reason why cyber security is no longer limited to the digital world, but has also become an important aspect of national security.” The Home Minister said that the government is planning to train and prepare 5,000 cyber commandos in the next five years to deal with cyber crimes in India.