KOZHIKODE: Whether it is the dreadful Blue- Whale Challenge game or the Islamic State propaganda, cyber criminals are gaining foot hold in India and Kerala, with high internet penetration, remains the most vulnerable state. With the cyber space turning into a battle field it is increasingly used to radicalise youngsters and cheat gullible netizens. The enforcement agencies have blocked as many as 3,460 URLs posing a threat to national security and human lives between January 2014 and June 2017.
As per the data with Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), there has been a 100 per cent rise in the number of URLs blocked in 2016 compared to the figures in 2014. While only 442 URLs were blocked in 2014, the number rose to 1,064 in 2016. As many as 735 URLs were blocked in the current year, till June. However, cyber experts are of the opinion the cyberwar will escalate in the coming days though the government continues devising various means to block the URLs.
“We keep blocking the URLs and the enemies continue creating new URLs to reach out to their targets. It’s like a cat and mouse game. There is no permanent solution to the cyber war. Youngsters in Kerala are more tech savvy and they know how to beat the IT protocols and access the forbidden,” said Manu P Zacharia, cyber security expert and member of Data Security Council of India. According to a National Investigation Agency (NIA) officer, they are investigating 20 IS-related cases in which it was established that social media URLs were playing a role in radicalising the people.
A top intelligence officer said the URLs are blocked based on the recommendation from the investigation team. The blocking of an URL is carried out either as per the direction of a committee under Section 69 A of IT Act or through a court order. According to the data with Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), there has been an exponential growth in the figures related to cyber crime. As many as 27,482 cyber security incidents were reported in India till June this year, while the figure stood at 44,679 in 2014, 49,455 in 2015 and 50,362 in 2016. The number of cyber crimes was 9,622 in 2014, 11,592 in 2015 and 12,371 in 2016.