India is fast emerging as a major hub of cyber crime, as recession is driving computer-literate criminals to electronic scams, claimed a study by researchers at the University of Brighton.
Titled ‘Crime Online: Cyber crime and Illegal Innovation’, the study states that cyber crime in India, China, Russia and Brazil is a cause of “particular concern” and that there has been a “leap in cyber crime” in India in recent years, partly fuelled by the large number of call centres.
“Russia, China and Brazil are world leaders in cyber crime, with groups and individuals in India powering up to compete. Yet companies in Europe and the US are increasingly moving IT functions and software development tasks to India, Brazil, Russia and Eastern Europe in a bid to draw on their good IT skills and lower wages”, says Professor Howard Rush who lead the study.
Although cyber criminal activity remained low in India compared with other emerging economies, the report says that “there has been a leap in cyber crime in recent years”. Reported cases of spam, hacking and fraud have multiplied 50-fold from 2004 to 2007, it claims.
“One recent report ranked India in 2008 as the fourteenth country in the world hosting phishing websites. Additionally, the booming of call centres in India has generated a niche for cyber criminal activity in harvesting data”, the report maintained.
The report also says that cyber crime is a global industry but the combination of poor economic opportunities and high skills is driving many developing regions to surface as major players in cyber crime.
The report predicts that cyber crime will continue to offer high rewards and low risks both to organized and to opportunistic criminals across the world. New players are emerging in countries like India and Brazil and as international financial networks acquire a greater global reach, such opportunities will multiply, it said.
“The scale and nature of the problem is genuinely trans national—credit card details stolen in the UK can be processed in Malaysia and used in Australia, while Indian call centres are thought to be a source for insider fraud”, the report says.
Law enforcement agencies are struggling to respond to the crisis, especially in places where legislative frameworks are weak or non-existent.
Source: Times of India, Mumbai Edition, dt 20.08.09
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