Money9 Edit | Needed a repository of fraudsters to secure cyber transactions

If you walk into any police station, you will find a board full of photographs of criminals active in the area. The objective is to alert the people about the identity of the bad guys. Proceeding from the same premise, as Digital India takes shape and millions conduct online transactions every day, a national repository of fraudsters is turning into a necessity.

Recently, the need for setting up a centralised repository of fraudsters was highlighted in a discussion between NITI Aayog and Mastercard to help police the cyberworld in a more effective manner. Over the past few years, the issue of cyber security in the domain of digital transactions and online banking, has been repeatedly highlighted as the government has pushed the country forward along the path of a cashless society.

Such a repository consists in all companies and customers notifying all frauds and suspicious transactions for everyone’s benefit. Obviously, the government has to organise such an effort since it can only help the common man repose confidence in online and remote transactions.

Reserve Bank of India has already initiated a multilingual portal for reporting suspicious entities and downright digital and banking frauds. But that might not be enough since fraudsters come in different garbs – from identifiable phishing attempts to steal passwords to communication on matrimonial portals. There are similar examples of repositories elsewhere. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has launched a cybercrime repository that helps countries in their efforts to prevent and effectively prosecute cybercriminals.

If these criminals are not brought to book, the ballooning incidents of cybercrimes will deter many from online transactions. Between FY15 and FY 19, digital transactions in India grew at a CAGR of 61% in volume and 19% in value. A June 2020 report on the Indian FinTech said that 40,000 cyber-attacks targeted the banking sector. A repository will be a confidence building step for the public.