New Delhi, Aug 4 (PTI) About 12,000 cybersecurity incidents related to government organisations were observed in the first half of 2021, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is mandated to track and monitor cybersecurity incidents in India, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said in a written reply to a query in the Lok Sabha.

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He said CERT-In has observed a total of 11,58,208 and 6,07,220 cybersecurity incidents during 2020 and 2021 (up to June), respectively.

Out of this, a total number of 54,314 and 12,001 cybersecurity incidents were related to government organisations during the year 2020 and 2021 (up to June), respectively, he added.

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In response to another question, Chandrasekhar noted that with the rapid growth of the internet coupled with the anonymity, there is a rise in cyber crime across the world.

"As per the information reported to and tracked by CERT-In, a total number of 454, 472, 280 and 138 phishing incidents were observed during the year 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 (up to June) respectively," he said.

He added that six financial fraud incidents affecting ATMs, cards, point of sale (PoS) systems and unified payment interface (UPI) were reported in 2018, while four cases each were reported during the year 2019, 2020 and 2021 (up to June).

The minister highlighted that the government has taken a number of steps to enhance the cybersecurity posture and prevent cyber attacks.

This includes formulation of a Cyber Crisis Management Plan for countering cyber attacks and cyber terrorism and CERT-In issuing alerts and advisories regarding latest cyber threats/vulnerabilities and countermeasures to protect computers and networks on regular basis. HRS hrs

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