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NEW DELHI: Over 53,000 cyber security incidents like phishing , website intrusions and defacements, virus and ransomware attacks were observed in the country during 2017, Parliament was informed on Friday.

"As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 44,679, 49,455, 50,362 and 53,081 cyber security incidents were observed during the year 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively," IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

He added that the types of cyber security incidents included phishing, scanning/probing, website intrusions and defacements, virus/malicious code, ransomware and denial of service attacks etc.

"With the proliferation and vast expansion of Information Technology and related services, there is a rise in instances of cyber crimes including financial frauds, using bank cards and e-wallets in the country like elsewhere in the world," he said.

As per the data maintained by National Crime Record Bureau ( NCRB ), a total of 9,622, 11,592 and 12,317 cybercrime cases were registered during the years 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively, he added.

The minister said the government has taken a number of legal, technical and administrative measures to prevent incidents of cyber crime.

These include enactment of the IT Act, 2000 that has adequate provisions for dealing with prevalent cyber crimes and establishment of National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIIPC) for protection of critical infrastructure in the country.

Besides, cyber crime cells have been set up in all states and union territories for reporting and investigation of cyber crime cases.

