At a time both the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu are making hectic efforts to promote digital transactions, it would be disastrous to note that Andhra Pradesh state is leading in the country with regard to cyber crimes, related to mobile transaction frauds, followed by Karnataka and Maharashtra.

This was revealed in the study titled ‘Strategic National Measures to Combat Cyber Crime’, and conducted by UK-based Ernst and Young in association with industry body Assocham. It says credit and debit card fraud cases top the chart of cyber crimes now.

There has been a six-fold increase in such cases over the past three years, it added. The study estimates 40 to 45% of financial transactions are done on mobile devices and expects the fraud risk to grow in 2017.

It also suggests the setting up of a national governing unit to integrate and share information related to cyber crime. While countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom have reached an advanced stage of their cyber security strategy, India is still in the process of defining key initiatives, the study observes.

“As the nation embarks to connect over 1.2 billion people… millions of people, devices and machines are getting hyper-connected every day. Enormous amount of real-time information is moving across the ever-expanding network at increasing speeds,” it says.

The study recommends a centralised database of cyber criminals so that they are monitored even after they are released from jails. Many countries, such as the USA and Australia, maintain a central repository of cyber criminals, the study says, underlining the need for collaboration with them to adopt their best practices.