The top three use cases of the internet in Assam are to chat and keep in touch with their friends and relatives (78%), to purchase goods and services online (57%), and attend online classes (60%). Most internet users in Assam have faced some form of cyberattacks in the last 1 year. About 63% of the respondents had been at the receiving end of spam messages on their email, 25% of the respondents had received hate messages on social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram, and 26% of the respondents have received pictures or videos that contained nudity. Speaking about the Month long Campaign, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, DGP, Assam Congratulated the joint efforts of Cyberpeace & Assam Police and said, “We are really proud of Cyber Safety awareness activities that are being undertaken and our efforts are in line with the best practices in the national arena. We are also planning a Community Outreach initiative of ‘Cyber Yoddha’, in which we will be training young volunteers to work as force multipliers. Additionally, our CID & Nagrik Mitra are also working to tackle the menace of cyber crimes. ” Harmeet Singh, ADGP (S,A,M&L), Assam Police shared some insights on the reach of our campaign and said,“The Cyber Safety Campaign was a timely and important initiative. With special focus on cyber safety for Children, our collaboration with UNICEF & UTSAH NGO for ‘Sishu Mitra Program’ is already ensuring the wellbeing of kids in the cyberspace.’’ Vineet Kumar, Founder and President, CyberPeace Foundation, said, “The campaign empowered citizens in not only identifying cyber threats but also in the prevention of various cyber security incidents before they happen and seek the right redressal in order to mitigate cyber threats. While there exists a high level of awareness among people in Assam regarding cyber threats, they lack the knowledge to deal with them. We hope to undertake more such campaigns in the future”. Launched by Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on the occasion of Assam Police Day, the ‘Cyber Safety Month’ ended on 31st October.
Most internet users in Assam faced some form of cyber-attacks in past one year: Study
GUWAHATI: A study of Assam Police and Cyber Peace Foundation (CPF) has found that most internet users in Assam have faced some form of cyber-attacks in the last one year. Assam Police & CPF also undertook a survey study in October 2020 to gauge the level of awareness around cyber security in Assam. The study found there exists a high level of awareness among the people of Assam for cyber crimes.The respondents expressed a deep understanding on cybercrime which was inclusive of both the crimes committed with the intent of stealing the data from computer hardware (70%) as well as crimes such as online harassment (71%), hacking (78%), online impersonation (68%) and spreading fake news (64%). The study stated 62% of the respondents knew that cyber crime is reported at the police station and 58% of respondents were also aware that Assam Police had dedicated cyber police stations and police personnel to deal with cyber crimes. Only 16% of the respondents stated that they have reported to the police when exposed to cyber crime and most of them (32%) preferred reporting to the website or doing nothing at all (22%). Most of the respondents (58%) were aware that by not saving username and password and enabling two-step verification option (73%) in the internet browsers they are securing themselves from their accounts being hacked and 71% respondents knew that they are not supposed to click on a pop-up window that appears on the internet. About 73% of the respondents were also aware that it was not safe to use public WiFi connections which are not password protected and 74% of the respondents were aware not to download mobile applications from sources other than apple store or google play store. The study revealed that majority of internet users in Assam access the web for social networking. The respondents use the internet to access a host of services, social networking sites (91%) such as Facebook and Whatsapp, professional use (73%) such as emails and seeking information, online purchases (81%) such as Amazon and Flipkart, accessing news and articles (74%), attending online classes (76%) and using banking services (70%).
