FM Nirmala Sitharaman stresses building awareness among people to reduce cyber fraud
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that in order to prevent con artists from abusing the system, people must become more conscious of cyberfrauds and take control of technology. Speaking at the 'DATE with Tech' event, the minister stated that the government regularly examines public sector banks and the regulator RBI checks its own systems in order to prevent cyber frauds, in which victims are tricked via phone or SMS.
Insurance firms assess their own systems as well.
«We are constantly doing what is required… Unless awareness, unless we are able to build that alertness in the mind of people that I should not go by anything that is said on my phone is built, citizens are at risk,» Sitharaman said.
According to her, there is worry on a small scale about people receiving arbitrary calls that trap them and cause them to lose money.
«Those people who game the system probably are one notch ahead of us in terms of using and misusing technology.
On that, there is a lot of work required. It is a never-ending game because technology is such an animal that keeps moving and racing much ahead of you.
You have to be sure that you got the reins in your hand,» Sitharaman said.
According to the minister, sizable organisations with systemically sensitive information should have sufficient technology and staff that are properly educated to firewall on a daily basis and to continuously assess whether the firewall is still capable of doing its job.
«On the other hand, we have concerns about people calling you and asking you to transfer money and bringing some legitimacy in the conversation by knowing some details about you and you tend to believe that it could be a genuine thing,» she said.
