Home Ministry gets new divisions to fight cyber crime, radicalization
The Union Home Ministry has created two new divisions to monitor radicalization activities and cyber fraud, apart from merging others. The new Counter-Terrorism and Counter Radicalisation (CTCR), earlier called Internal Security-II, will now be responsible for checking terrorist incidents. On the other hand, the Cyber and Information Security (CIS) will monitor cybercrime including hacking. The ministry will continue to have 18 divisions.
CTCR will be responsible for fighting terrorist activities
"Threats to internal security from increased radicalization, mostly online, and terrorism were growing," officials said. To counter such attempts, the CTCR was formed. It will monitor domestic terrorist activities as well as keep a track on the reach of global extremist outfits. It will be responsible for devising strategies to tackle related threat. Domain experts will be roped in for the task.
CIS will check growing incidents of cybercrime
The CIS "will track and counter online fraud, hacking, identity theft, dark net, trafficking and cyber attacks on critical information infrastructure", officials said. It will also come up with ways to deal with cybercrime. In July, the CERT-In had said India registered 27,482 cases of cybercrime in the first six months of 2017 - roughly one incident every 20 minutes.
The other mergers under the administrative changes
Apart from rehashing Internal Security-II, the ministry has merged Internal Security-I and III. The International Cooperation division has been merged with the Coordination and Public Grievances division. Coordination and International Cooperation, a new wing, has been carved from them. The judicial wing has meanwhile been merged with the Centre-State division. Each of the 18 divisions will be led by a joint secretary-level officer.
