Menace Of Cybercrime: A Threat To Indian Society In The Twenty-First Century
R N Mangoli, Professor and Research Guide, Department of Criminology and Forensic Science, Kittur Rani Channamma University, Belagavi
Sandra Fernandes, PhD Research Scholar, Department of Criminology and Forensic Science, Kittur Rani Channamma University, Belagavi
ABSTRACT
The rapid expansion of information and communication technologies has transformed India's socio-economic landscape, embedding digital platforms into governance, commerce, banking, education, healthcare, and social life. This transformation has been accompanied by a marked increase in cybercrime, posing serious threats to individuals, businesses, government institutions, and national security. This study examines the growing menace of cybercrime in India between 2015 and 2025, with an emphasis on emerging cyber threats, legal developments, institutional responses, and prevention strategies. Adopting a descriptive and doctrinal research design, this study draws on secondary data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), Ministry of Home Affairs, Reserve Bank of India, and peer-reviewed literature. The findings show a near nine- fold increase in registered cybercrime cases between 2015 and 2024, driven by financial fraud, phishing, ransomware, cryptocurrency-enabled crime, deepfake-based fraud, and digital-arrest scams. This study evaluates India's legal and institutional framework the Information Technology Act, 2000 and its 2008 amendment, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, CERT-In Directions, 2022, and I4C initiatives and identifies persistent challenges, including jurisdictional complexity, under-reporting, low digital literacy, and shortages of trained investigators. The study concludes that curbing cybercrime requires an integrated strategy that combines legal reform, cybersecurity infrastructure, institutional capacity building, international cooperation, public-private partnerships, and sustained digital literacy efforts.
Keywords: Cybercrime; Cybersecurity; Digital Personal Data Protection Act; Artificial Intelligence; Deepfakes; Ransomware; Digital Arrest; India; CERT-In; I4C
