Cybercrime in India

Cybercrime and cyber security were among the issues Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed with US President Barack Obama during his US visit. As many as 9,622 cybercrimes were reported in India in 2014, an increase of 69 per cent over the previous year. Of this, 7,201 were reported as offences under the information technology (IT) Act, 2,272 under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and 149 under special and local laws (SSL). Under the IT Act, 5,548 cases reported were computer-related offences, of which 4,192 were under Section 66A, which has a jail term of two or more years for sending "offensive messages through communication service" and related offences.

As many as 758 cases were registered for publication or transmission of obscene or sexually explicit content under the IT Act.

Cheating (1,115) was the most reported crime, accounting for nearly 50 per cent of IPC crimes. Under SSL offences, copyright violation was the most reported crime (118 of 149).

Greed was the major motive behind cyber-crime cases in 2014 with 1,736 cases, followed by "insult to modesty of women (599)", fraud or illegal gain (495), sexual exploitation (357) and "personal revenge/settling scores (285)".

Maharashtra reported the most cybercrimes (1,879) in 2014, double the cases (907) of the previous year.

Uttar Pradesh was second (1,737), followed by Karnataka (1,020), Telangana (703), and Rajasthan (697). The top five states accounted for 63 per cent of all cases in 2014.

As many as 5,752 people were arrested for cybercrimes in 2014, of which 5,744 were Indians and eight foreigners. As many as 95 persons were convicted and 276 acquitted for cybercrimes in 2014.

Uttar Pradesh reported the most (1,223) arrests in 2014, followed by Maharashtra (942), Telangana (429), Madhya Pradesh (386), and Karnataka (372).

Some 8,000 websites were hacked in the first three months of 2016, and 13,851 spamming violations were reported, according to a Lok Sabha reply dated May 4, 2016.