Cybercrime in Vizag: Precautions to be taken and other details you need to know

Cybercrime has emerged as a serious nuisance. With most of our daily tasks being dependent on smartphones and computers, the digital world has turned into a cascade of data. As we continue to grow increasingly dependant on the digital capabilities of these systems, the risk of being prone to a cyber attack has been on a worrying rise. Vizag city, which has a population of over 2 million, has been a hub of cybercrime activities of late. In this regard, the city police have been running campaigns to raise awareness among the public to save them from falling prey to a cyber attack. From making announcements publicly to issuing guidelines on different platforms, the city’s cops have been leaving no stone unturned in their battle against the cyber demons.

Vizag city currently has a dedicated cybercrime police station at the Visakhapatnam Police Commissionerate to deal with cases related to online attacks. Cyber frauds are categorised as follows:

• SMS- Email/ Facebook/ other social media abuse
• Vishing, OTP frauds including phishing links, ATM/ Skimming/ Spoofing, etc
• Nigerian frauds (lottery), matrimonial/ Facebook gift frauds
• OLX/ Job frauds/ Pension/ Loan
• Online fraud/ Email hacking/ Fake websites/ Honeytrap (dating websites)

Stating that all fraudsters in cybercrime cases are located at different places in the country, the Vizag City Police noted that prevention of cybercrime offences through awareness to the public is a very important task.

The plan of action of Vizag City Police in tackling cybercrime includes:

• Creating cyber awareness among teens and young adults.
• Spreading the message of awareness through videos and other media.
• Creating awareness on safe browsing.
• Conducting meetings at colleges, institutions, apartments, gated communities, group houses, to raise awareness on cyber frauds and create awareness on the usage of social media apps.
• Conducting awareness in government institutions.
• Utilization services of bankers, various financial institutions to create awareness among their customers against cyber frauds.
• Conducting awareness campaigns by explaining recently reported cybercrimes and different modus operandi adopted by criminals for committing cyber fraud offences.
• Protect citizens from cyberstalking.
• Creating awareness on how to protect personal information like phone number, e-mail address, photographs from unknown persons.
• Raising awareness against Child Pornography (CP)/Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) or Sexually Explicit material.
• Enlightening the public about fake social media accounts.
• Educating citizens to install anti-virus software with parental control.
• Counselling parents to observe their children’s behaviour and make them aware of cyber threats.

Precautions to be taken:

The police also advised the citizens to refrain from using a friend’s phone, a public computer, a cyber cafe, or a freely available Wi-Fi for sensitive browsing as data can be easily stolen or copied in such cases. Citizens have also been warned against sharing passwords, PIN, pattern, or biometric information to their devices with unknown persons. It has been advised that applications be installed on mobile phones, computers, and other gadgets through a trusted source.