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Internal Security › Cyber security and money laundering
हिन्दी — Read in HindiCybercrime and cyber law
Cybercrime, the law and treaties against it, and the cooperation between States that it needs.
Asked before
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Digital arrest and the money trail: the Supreme Court's August directions
Copy link to Digital arrest and the money trail: the Supreme Court's August directionsLeadPrelims and Mains4 Aug 2026
- 1,23,672digital arrest complaints on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal in 2024; 58,239 in 2025; 16,377 to 30 June 2026
- 36,290cases in which money was restored to victims through the Money Restoration Portal, about ₹18.05 crore
- 19 and 14States with electronic zero FIR working, and States that have notified a State Cybercrime Coordination Centre
India signs the UN Convention against Cybercrime
Copy link to India signs the UN Convention against CybercrimeLeadPrelims and Mains25 Sep 2026
- 25 September 2026India signs, in New York
- December 2024adopted by the General Assembly; 25 October 2025: opened for signature at Hanoi
- 40 ratifications, then 90 daysthe rule for entry into force; three ratifications by May 2026
Digital arrest scams: the NHRC's open house
Copy link to Digital arrest scams: the NHRC's open houseBriefPrelims and Mains9 Jun 2026
- In a digital arrest scam, callers posing as police, customs or investigating officers keep a victim on a video call under threat of arrest until money is transferred; many such scams are run from scam compounds in Southeast Asia through mule accounts.
- On 9 June 2026 the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) held an open house on the scams. It noted that Indians had lost about ₹52,976 crore to cyber enabled fraud over six years, by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre's data, nearly 8 per cent of it to digital arrest.
- The suggestions before it: make digital arrest a distinct offence, criminalise renting out mule accounts, add transaction circuit breakers and holds on suspicious transfers, and make banks, telecom operators and platforms more accountable.
- Victims report through the 1930 helpline and the cybercrime.gov.in portal.
Exam lens: digital arrest is not a legal procedure; mule accounts; the I4C under the Home Ministry; the 1930 helpline; the NHRC's suggestion of a distinct offence.
Sources
- NHRC, “NHRC, India organises an open house discussion on safeguarding human rights against digital arrest scams in hybrid mode”
Also filed elsewhere
- Mis-selling, dark patterns and compensation for digital fraud: the Reserve Bank's conduct rules · on Non bank lenders, payments and financial technology
The Reserve Bank of India's Responsible Business Conduct directions set how banks and other regulated entities must treat customers when they sell products and when a customer is defrauded.
- Prompt injection and ASCII smuggling · on Cyber security and data protection
Exam lens: ASCII stores 128 characters; Unicode extends it to the world's scripts and keeps ASCII as its first 128; tag characters are invisible; prompt injection works through language, not code.
- Sanchar Saathi, ASTR and Chakshu · on Cyber security and data protection
Exam lens: Sanchar Saathi, ASTR and Chakshu are the Department of Telecommunications' tools; the Telecommunications Act, 2023 gives the Department the power to act against fraudulent connections.