Kolkata, Nov 1 (PTI) The West Bengal government on Monday said it has sensitised 16 lakh people on cybercrime that witnessed a spike of 300 per cent during the lockdown period, a senior minister said.

Also Read | Shirur Vidhan Sabha Constituency in Maharashtra: Sitting MLA, Candidates For Assembly Elections 2019, Results And Winners.

The initiative was taken during the Cyber Security Awareness Month which is observed in October.

Also Read | Odisha BSE 10th Result 2019 Not Today: Class 10 Board Exam Scores to Be Declared Soon Online at bseodisha.ac.in; Here's List of Website to Check Marks.

The drive was also taken up in banks and government departments, he said.

“Due to the Covid pandemic and the lockdown, the entire country shifted from physical to digital mode. During this time, India witnessed a 300 per cent rise in cyber-attacks at its commercial, government, and critical IT infrastructure. Hence the need arose for such an exercise.

“We issued tips on cyber-awareness daily through SMS, social media, WhatsApp, and voice message, covering over 16 lakh citizens,” state industry and IT minister Partha Chatterjee said at the closing ceremony of the “National Cyber Security Awareness Month – October 2021.

The cyber security centre of the state IT department also launched comic books in Bengali to generate awareness about it among youngsters.

The concept of an awareness month on cyber security was first launched by the National Cyber Security Alliance(NCSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in October 2004 but now it is observed worldwide in October.

The celebration commenced with launching ‘Secure Bengal 2021', a month-long and state-wide online training programme for college students that witnessed over 17,000 registrations.

Certificates from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Department of Information Technology and Electronics were issued to help the students secure employment opportunities, he said.

The state government in association with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology (MAKAUT) has courses on cyber security.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)