• 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, a move aimed at detecting money trail and combating cyber frauds.

• In a notification, the Revenue Department under the Finance Ministry included I4C under Section 66 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). 

• This would help I4C to share and receive information from the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and other law enforcement agencies.

• Amid growing instances of cyber frauds targeting common man, this information sharing would help identify the masterminds behind such frauds which are mostly trans-national.

• Such online frauds are being perpetrated through fake websites, deceptive social media pages, and paid advertisements on search engines. Such fraudsters also resort to sending OTP or a weblink on an individual’s phone or email, and when an unsuspecting individual clicks on the link or shares the OTP, his/her phone/computer gets hacked.

Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)

• Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) is an initiative of the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide a national platform for tackling cybercrime in a coordinated and comprehensive manner. 

• I4C is working towards its vision to create an effective framework and ecosystem for prevention, detection, investigation, and prosecution of cybercrime.

• I4C aims to strengthen the capabilities of law enforcement agencies (LEAs) and improve coordination among various stakeholders and LEAs. 

• It is continuously working for the enhancement of the nation’s technical capabilities to deal with cybercrime and to further strengthen the operational architecture and coordination among LEAs and other stakeholders.

• The focus of I4C has been on tackling all the issues related with cybercrime for all citizens, such as improving coordination among various central and state agencies, driving change in India’s overall capability to tackle cybercrime and facilitating capacity development of LEAs to better respond to cybercrime.

• I4C also focusses on strengthening the fight against cybercrime, committed against women and children. 

• Ease of filing cybercrime related complaints has been improved with the various initiatives of NCRP. 

• I4C has assisted states/UTs in capacity building of police officers and judicial officers in the areas of cyber forensics, cyber hygiene, cyber-criminology, etc.

Components of I4C: 

i) National Cybercrime Threat Analytics Unit for reporting threats pertaining to cybercrimes at regular intervals.

ii) National Cybercrime Reporting Portal to report various cybercrime complaints by citizens at all India level on a common platform on 24x7 basis from “anywhere, anytime”.

iii) National Cybercrime Training Centre to impart training to government officials, specially state law enforcement agencies.

iv) National Cybercrime Research & Innovation Centre to carry out research for development of indigenous tools for prevention of cybercrimes.

v) Platform for Joint Cyber Crime Coordination Teams for coordination, sharing of modus operandi of cybercrimes, data/information among states/UTs LEAs.

vi) National Cybercrime Ecosystem Management Unit for creating mass awareness in cyber hygiene for prevention of cybercrimes.

vii) National Cybercrime Forensic Laboratory (Investigation) Ecosystem for helping LEAs in cyber forensics investigation.

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