Tech for good and bad: IT hubs saw most cybercrime cases in 2022

India witnessed a 24 per cent surge in recorded cybercrimes in 2022 compared to the previous year, as per data released by the National Crimes Records Bureau (NCRB).

The report ‘Crime in India’ revealed a total of 65,893 cybercrime cases, indicating a 24.4 per cent increase from the 52,974 cases reported in 2021. The crime rate in this category rose from 3.9 per lakh population in 2021 to 4.8 in 2022.

Notably, 64.8 per cent of the registered cybercrime cases in 2022 were attributed to fraud, accounting for 42,710 cases, followed by extortion at 5.5 percent (3,648 cases) and sexual exploitation at 5.2 per cent (3,434 cases).

Bengaluru takes lead

The majority of these cases were concentrated in the states of Telangana, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, collectively representing more than half of the reported cybercrimes. Telangana tops the chart with 15,297 cases followed by Karnataka with 12,556 cases. Uttar Pradesh recorded 10,117 cases in the year 2022.

Mizoram recorded only one cybercrime case during this period whereas Nagaland had four cases. Excluding the northeastern states, Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh had the lowest cybercrime rates, with Bihar following closely behind. In Telangana, the cybercrime rate for this period was 40.3 and in Karnataka, it was 18.6. On the contrary, the rate in UP was as low as 4.3.

Among urban areas, Bengaluru has once again taken the lead in the number of cybercrime incidents reported across all major cities in India in 2022. Bengaluru has consistently topped the list of cities with the highest cybercrime cases for several years. However, in 2022, the city accounted for almost three-quarters of the cases documented among the 19 metro cities, according to the NCRB data.

The data reveals that out of the 24,420 cybercrime cases reported in the 19 metro cities in 2022, Bengaluru recorded 9,940 cases. Mumbai came second with 4,724 cases whereas Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana and another IT hub in South India, recorded 4,436 cybercrime cases, among the 19 metro cities.

Interestingly, cities such as Lucknow, Ghaziabad and Delhi, which also are regarded as IT hubs, reported a relatively higher number of cases.

Children on target

A total of 1,823 cases of cybercrimes targeting children were documented in 2022, reflecting a 32 per cent increase from the preceding year, as indicated by NCRB data. In 2021, the overall count of such cases stood at 1,376.

These offences encompass cyber pornography, the hosting or publication of explicit sexual materials involving children, cyberstalking or bullying, and other related crimes. The breakdown reveals 1,171 cases of ‘Cyber Pornography/Hosting or Publishing Obscene Sexual Materials’, 158 cases of cyber stalking/bullying, and 416 cases of cybercrimes against children of various other natures were reported.

The NCRB data also shows that the rate of chargesheeting in the cybercrime cases is just 30 per cent with Delhi topping the chart with 89.3 per cent.