Punjab witnesses record increase in cybercrimes in past five years

Despite the upsurge, there has been little effort to make public aware about the appropriate use of the internet

LAHORE:

The country is currently experiencing an internet boom and has been consistently termed as Asia’s fastest growing internet market but along with that growth come challenges such as cyber crime, which has seen an upsurge.

In the past 5 years of the internet boom, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has received thousands of complaints of cyber crimes which include online fraud, social media defamation, online stalking and harassment, hate speech, and theft of data. It is pertinent to mention that most of these grievances originate from Punjab, where on average 15 complaints are filed every day with the FIA’s provincial cyber crime wing.

According to documents obtained from the apex investigation body of the country by The Express Tribune, 7 different types of cyber crimes were regularly reported in the province from 2018 to 2022. Out of the 7, in first place is online fraud, with 26,924 complaints registered; in second, online stalking with 18,851 complaints; in third, data theft with 17,749 complaints; in fourth, online harassment, particularly that of women, with 2,357 complaints; in fifth, hate speech, with 2,038 complaints; in sixth, use of unverified SIMs, with more than 1,000 complaints; and in seventh place, child pornography, with 98 complaints.

A further breakdown of the data shows that the previous year, 2022, proved to be landmark year for cyber crimes in Punjab as 8,492 incidents of online fraud; 5,746 incidents of online stalking; 3,844 incidents of data theft; 1,160 incidents of online harassment; 198 incidents of hate speech; 164 incidents of use of unverified SIMs; and 31 incidents of child pornography were reported to the FIA from the province. Former Director General (DG) of the FIA, Syed Tahseen Anwar Ali Shah, commenting on this upsurge in cyber crimes, opined that cases would further increase due to a lack of awareness about the proper use of the internet.

“We desperately need to teach the general public on how to properly use the internet, therefore the government should consider including it in the educational curriculum,” suggested Shah. Shahid Hussain, an information technology (IT) expert based in Lahore, agrees with Shah’s suggestion.

“The cyber crime rate is increasing because people are not aware of how to use technology and no effort has been made to inform people about their digital rights.” Hussain further said that this lack of effort meant that the true rate of increase in cyber crimes was unknown. “I estimate that internet related crimes are 3 times higher than the official numbers.” Director Cyber Crime FIA, Punjab, Jahanzaib Nazeer, concurring with Hussain’s observation, said that it was true that the rate of cyber crimes had ballooned in recent years and many cases were not even reported.

“The public are often not aware about internet crimes and those who are do not want to go through the process of registering a complaint and then waiting for its conclusion.

Many who register a complaint often reach a compromise with the other party and call it a day.” When asked if the FIA planned on addressing the lack of reporting, Nazeer told The Express Tribune that the agency planned on conducting country wide seminars in schools and colleges to increase awareness, soon.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 7^th, 2023.