HYDERABAD: The number of cyber crime incidents are on the rise.From the recent seemingly harmless hacking of government websites to incidents of online fraud, cyber criminals are taking advantage of lax internet security and naive users more and more.If there were only 160 cases of online crime being reported in the state in 2010, the figure doubled to 320 in 2011.The nationwide statistics also show a steep rise in online crime cases, from 420 in 2009 to 1,900 last year.The targets and reasons for targeting are varied.While many women and children fall prey to harassment and online stalking, quite a few not-so-net-savvy, middle-aged men fall prey to online fraud, says U Rammohan, additional SP at the Cyber crime police station in the city.Interestingly, like other types of crimes, many cases of cyber crimes are not reported.While solving cyber crime cases and catching the culprit is not difficult, prevention is always easier and better than a cure.Rammohan says that net users must always be careful about their online activities.One should disclose as minimum information as possible while online as an exploiter can be from any part of the world, the additional SP said.He added that emails must not be used as storage device for sensitive information and must always be protected with a strong password which must be changed from time to time.With banking and shopping facilities available online, many people are using details like bank account numbers and ATM PIN numbers online.Online transactions must not be done through cyber cafes and one must be alert about automatically saving passwords on shared computers.But what does one do if one does fall victim to cyber criminals? The first and foremost thing, says the additional SP, is to not panic and approach the nearest cyber crime police station.“Nobody is anonymous online.We have our own specialists to help victims with whatever minimum proofs available,” Rammohan said.
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