Police alert on social media use, cybercrime on the rise

Prem Vir Singh, Police Commissioner, Ahmedabad Crime Detection Division, spoke about the link between social media and the rise of cybercrime. He warned about what is “seen” and “read” on social media, adding that the total losses caused by cybercrime are estimated at around $6 trillion.

“According to data collected in 2021, Google earns $ 69 billion. Of that, 10 percent of revenue comes from YouTube, or about $7 billion. So they get the revenue and we get the gossip from certain sources… be careful what you watch. Use social media with care. If you can’t verify it, don’t read it,” Prem Vir Singh said.

It’s getting harder and harder to distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake, he went on to say about deepfake content.

In addition, at the event, Ajit Rajian, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber ​​Crime) Ahmedabad, said, “Anyone with a mobile phone is vulnerable and a potential criminal. According to the World Bank Report 2022, 63 percent of the world is connected to the Internet. And in India, 61 percent are connected to the internet. By 2025, over 95 crore Indians will be using the internet. Embracing technology while tackling its challenges is a two-pronged strategy to be adopted with the advent of the Internet of Things and the digitization of processes that penetrates deeper into the lives of individuals.”

Rajian described some categories of cybercrime such as hacking, online fraud, online drugs, social media bullying, and conventional crimes. “The biggest challenge in the cyber world is ransomware attacks, which increased in 2021 and even more in 2022. Along with that, phishing attacks and attacks on the Internet of Things have become commonplace. Software vulnerabilities are also one of the most common causes of cyberattacks where they don’t update the software on their devices because they consider it unnecessary, but it should be a top priority for everyone,” Rajian added.

Recalling some incidents such as the 2012 exodus of people from the North East to Bangalore, the 2013 Muzzafarnagar riots, and the lynching death over an unverified video of a child being kidnapped during a 2018 round, he also spoke about the dangers of fake news.