India a breeding ground for cyber-criminals

In recent years, the digital landscape has become a fertile ground for cybercriminals, exploiting the vulnerabilities of unsuspecting citizens and siphoning off their hard-earned money. The trend is alarmingly upward, with cybercrimes in India increasing exponentially.

India ranked 5th in the list of most breached countries with 5.3 million leaked accounts in 2023. Globally, a total of 299.8 million accounts were breached, with the U.S. ranking first and amounting to 32% of all breaches from January through December. Russia took the second place, while France ranked third, followed by Spain and India.

Data breaches are a matter of concern as they put users at risk of being targeted with social engineering and identity theft attacks. Scammers are known to use breached data to send fake emails pretending to be from legitimate organizations. These emails might contain links with computer viruses or requests to disclose even more personal information.

As per a report, cybercrime costs the world around $9.22 trillion in 2024, and it is expected to grow to $13.82 trillion by 2028. However, pinpointing the geographical bases of cybercriminal activities remains challenging because they use methods that block their locations.

Cybercriminals often employ sophisticated techniques, such as anonymizing services and encryption, to conceal their identities and locations. By using virtual private networks (VPNs), proxy servers, or the Tor network, they can obscure their IP addresses and route their traffic through multiple countries, making it difficult to trace their origins.

A study says that, Jamatara city, once considered the cyber-crime capital of India, is no longer the epicentre. The study found that 35 hotspots in India are actively involved in cybercrime activities. The top 10 cybercrime hotspots in India collectively account for 80% of cybercrime-related cases in India.

These districts are strategically located near India's capital or closer to the National Capital Region (NCR). These districts are strategically placed with multiple borders, making them easy targets for criminals.

Cybercriminals continually adapt and evolve their tactics to evade detection and prosecution. They may use sophisticated techniques such as social engineering, encryption, and anonymizing services to conceal their identities and locations, making it challenging for law enforcement to track them down.

Cybercriminals operate in a global environment, exploiting the anonymity and reach of the internet to target victims from anywhere in the world. The challenges faced by law enforcement in tackling cybercrimes, including fraud and other digital offenses, are indeed multifaceted and can be daunting.