{"id":42219,"date":"2025-04-28T19:42:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T14:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=42219"},"modified":"2025-04-28T19:42:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T14:12:44","slug":"govt-brings-cybercrime-centre-i4c-under-pmla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-04-2025\/govt-brings-cybercrime-centre-i4c-under-pmla","title":{"rendered":"Govt. Brings Cybercrime Centre I4C under PMLA"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Cybersecurity<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The government has authorised <strong>Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)<\/strong> to <strong>share and receive information from the Enforcement Directorate<\/strong> under the <strong>anti-money laundering law<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is aimed at <strong>detecting money trails and combating cyber frauds.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Revenue Department under the Finance Ministry included <strong>I4C under Section 66 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Need:<\/strong> This information sharing would help identify the masterminds behind such frauds which are mostly trans-national.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>About Directorate of Enforcement (ED)<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Established:<\/strong> It was established in<strong> 1956<\/strong> with the formation of an <strong>&#8216;Enforcement Unit&#8217; <\/strong>under the aegis of the <strong>Department of Economic Affairs <\/strong>and handles Exchange Control Laws violations under <strong>Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (FERA 1947).\u00a0<\/strong><br>1. A year later, the Enforcement Unit was renamed the Enforcement Directorate.\u00a0<br>&#8211; It is a<strong> multi-disciplinary organization<\/strong> mandated with<strong> investigation of the offence of money laundering and violations of foreign exchange laws.\u00a0<\/strong><br><strong>The statutory functions of the Directorate<\/strong> include enforcement of following Acts:<br>&#8211; <strong>The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA):<\/strong> It is a <strong>civil law <\/strong>enacted to consolidate and amend the laws relating to facilitate <strong>external trade and payments.<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA): <\/strong>It is a<strong> criminal law <\/strong>enacted to prevent money, ED has been given the responsibility to enforce the provisions of the PMLA.<br>&#8211; <strong>The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 (FEOA): <\/strong>This law was enacted to <strong>deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law<\/strong> by remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian courts.\u00a0<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What is Cybercrime?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Cybercrime refers to criminal activities that involve the <strong>use of computers, networks, and digital technologies.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It encompasses a <strong>wide range of illicit activities <\/strong>conducted in the virtual space, often with the intent to compromise, damage, or gain unauthorized access to computer systems, networks, and data.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Cybercriminals employ <strong>various techniques and tools <\/strong>to exploit vulnerabilities in networks, and they may target individuals, organizations, or even governments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Common types of cybercrime include:<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Hacking:<\/strong> Unauthorized access to computer systems or networks to steal, alter, or destroy data.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Phishing:<\/strong> Deceptive attempts to acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and financial details, by posing as a trustworthy entity.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Malware:<\/strong> Malicious software designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorized access to computer systems.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Identity Theft:<\/strong> Stealing and using someone&#8217;s personal information, such as social security numbers or credit card details, for fraudulent purposes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cyber Espionage:<\/strong> Covert activities aimed at gaining unauthorized access to sensitive information for political, economic, or military purposes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cyberbullying:<\/strong> Using digital platforms to harass, threaten, or intimidate individuals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Impact of Cyber Crimes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>National Security Threats: <\/strong>Cyber crimes pose a threat to national security when state-sponsored actors or criminal organizations target critical infrastructure, government institutions, or military systems.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Data Breaches: <\/strong>Data breaches lead to the exposure of personal information, trade secrets, intellectual property, and other confidential data, causing severe damage to the affected entities.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Disruption of Services: <\/strong>Cyber attacks disrupt essential services such as power grids, communication networks, and transportation systems.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Reputational Damage: <\/strong>Organizations that fall victim to cyber attacks often suffer reputational damage.\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Initiatives by Government of India to Prevent Cybercrimes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In): <\/strong>CERT-In is the <strong>national nodal agency<\/strong> for responding to cybersecurity incidents.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It provides proactive and reactive cybersecurity support and plays a crucial role in ensuring the security and resilience of the country&#8217;s cyber infrastructure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC): <\/strong>NCIIPC is responsible for protecting critical information infrastructure from cyber threats.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It identifies and designates critical sectors and advises organizations in these sectors on enhancing their cybersecurity measures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cyber Crime Prevention against Women &amp; Children (CCPWC) scheme: <\/strong>The Ministry of Home Affairs has provided financial assistance to all the States &amp; UTs under the scheme to support their efforts for setting up of cyber forensic-cum-training laboratories, training, and hiring of junior cyber consultants.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)<\/strong>: It provides a framework and ecosystem for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to deal with cyber crimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u2018Joint Cyber Coordination Teams\u2019 have been constituted for seven regions at Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Visakhapatnam and Guwahati under the I4C.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal<\/strong>: It is launched to enable the public to report incidents pertaining to all types of cyber crimes.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>A toll-free number 1930 <\/strong>has been operationalized to get assistance in lodging online cyber complaints.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System<\/strong> module has also been launched for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis Centre): <\/strong>This initiative is aimed at creating awareness about <strong>botnet and malware infections <\/strong>and providing<strong> tools for detection and cleaning<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>International Conventions on Cyber Crimes<\/strong><br>&#8211; <strong>Budapest Convention on Cybercrime (Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime)<\/strong>: It is the<strong> first <\/strong>international treaty specifically addressing crimes committed via the internet and other computer networks.\u00a0<br>1. It includes provisions on offenses such as illegal access, data interference, system interference, and content-related crimes.\u00a0<br>&#8211; <strong>Internet Governance Forum:<\/strong> The United Nations Internet Governance Forum (IGF) serves to bring people together from various stakeholder groups, as equals, in discussions on digital public policy.\u00a0<br>&#8211; <strong>African Union Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection (Malabo Convention): <\/strong>This convention focuses on cybersecurity and personal data protection on the African continent.\u00a0<br>1. It outlines principles for preventing cyber threats, protecting critical information infrastructure, and facilitating international cooperation.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/govt-brings-cybercrime-centre-i4c-under-pmla\/article69498751.ece#:~:text=Indian%20cybersecurity%20force-,In%20a%20notification%20dated%20April%2025%2C%20the%20Revenue%20Department%20under,and%20other%20law%20enforcement%20agencies.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The government has authorised Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) to share and receive information from the Enforcement Directorate under the anti-money laundering law.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>About<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">It is aimed at detecting money trails and combating cyber frauds.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The Revenue Department under the Finance Ministry included I4C under Section 66 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.\u00a0<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-04-2025\/govt-brings-cybercrime-centre-i4c-under-pmla\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42219"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42231,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42219\/revisions\/42231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}