By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JUNE 18, 2018: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today cautioned against the new challenges being posed by crimes in the cyberspace and called for effective measures to improve cyber security. In a review meeting in the Ministry of Home Affairs, he expressed concern over the misuse of social media for illegal activities and directed to strengthen the capabilities of law enforcement agencies to be able to meet the challenges posed by it.

Mr Singh appreciated the efforts made in expediting security clearance for proposals in sensitive sectors and noted with satisfaction that the average duration for the clearance of a proposal has come down to 53 days compared to 120 days four years ago. He directed to further reduce the clearance time by making use of online systems in coordination with administrative Ministries for processing the proposals. This would further improve efficiency and monitoring.

While expressing concern over rising misuse of internet for circulating child pornography and other obscene material, the Home Minister directed to expedite the launch of online cybercrime reporting portal. This will enable affected people in States/Union Territories to lodge complaints which will be investigated by the respective law enforcement agencies and action taken for removal of such content.

Mr Rajnath Singh called for greater vigilance against evolving cyber threats and called for regular cyber auditing of IT infrastructure of all organisations under MHA. He directed for upgradation and updation of National Information Security Policy and Guidelines (NISPG) for the government sector. He also expressed concern over financial frauds being committed on gullible public by phone call fraudsters and stressed on increasing public awareness and strengthening of institutional framework for checking such frauds.

Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Union Home Secretary Mr Rajiv Gauba and senior officials of MHA were present.