SHILLONG, March 15: About 68 per cent of people are aware that they can file cases against cybercrimes under the Information Technology Act, 2000, while a mere 12 per cent of respondents have reported to the police and the 40 per cent of them decided not to seek police aid.

This was revealed by a survey, which was conducted as part of a month-long awareness campaign on cyber peace which was jointly conducted by Meghalaya Police and CyberPeace Foundation (CPF), a think tank of cybersecurity comprising policy experts.

However, surprisingly, out of the total participants in the survey, 23 per cent of the respondents were oblivious to the provisions of law that could assist them in seeking redressal against cybercrimes.

According to a statement on Monday, the survey was conducted to focus primarily on identifying online threats that people are exposed to and their understanding of internet usage and technology.

Meanwhile, the curtain on the month-long awareness campaign came down during a virtual programme on Monday where school and college students were shown a video message of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, who stressed on the need to understand different types of cybercrimes.

He also accentuated the need to educate the youths on ways and means to counter the menace that lurks in the online world.

Senior police officials who addressed the participants during the webinar include DGP R Chandranathan, Additional DGP I Nongrang, Special SP (CID) V Singh, among others.

Source: https://theshillongtimes.com/2021/03/16/only-12-pc-of-cybercrime-victims-sought-police-help-reveals-survey/