Digital epidemic: State can't abdicate its duty to deal with cybercrime

For many authorities - whether financial regulators or those in charge of civil aviation, and even in some cases the local police - digital crime is a new frontier

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his radio address to the nation this Sunday, talked about the increasing risk of cyber fraud. This follows multiple occasions in which scamsters targeted individuals and threatened them with “digital arrest”, pretending that they were from various authorities, such as the police, the securities market regulator, or the narcotics squad. The targeted individuals are then induced to clear out their bank accounts and in some cases transfer them into cryptocurrency wallets. Even those who are relatively digitally literate have been victimised by these fraudsters. It is welcome, therefore, that the Prime Minister chose to raise