I write this petition from a personal place of disappointment and disbelief. My company, Tekzilver, was attacked by a network of well-organized cyber criminals in India, along with their global collaborators. Despite these attacks continuing unabated for over 4 years now, the cyber cell within the local police of Uttar Pradesh have been utterly ineffective. Not only do these enforcement officers lack the necessary skills and understanding to appropriately respond, but they have themselves become embroiled in criminal activities, attempting to force us into a crypto scam. This shocking revelation only underscores the urgent need for change.

State governments are currently utilizing regular law enforcement officers to deal with cyber crimes. These officers, although upstanding in their traditional roles, are ill-equipped to understand and tackle the sophisticated nature of online crime due to lack of specialized training. This inadequacy allows cybercriminals to elude the law, and continue their spree of illegal activities with impunity.

Cybercrime is on the rise, with experts predicting that it will cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025, up from $3 trillion in 2015 - a rate of increase that clearly outpaces our current law enforcement capabilities (Cybersecurity Ventures, 2020). These statistics strongly argue for immediate and forceful action.

We need a dedicated, well-trained cybersecurity police force for each state. These specialists, adept in understanding the nuances of cybercrime and the relevant sections of cyber law, will help not only in the effective detection and prevention of these crimes, but also in bringing the perpetrators to justice. We should not forget that the safety of our digital spaces is as important as our physical environment.

Read the full details of this case on the various articles we have published about it on our blog.

This is a real-life incident and we are going through it now.

The scary thing about our case is, it exposed the fact that states in India have zero facilities to fight cyber crime. The police are not only untrained, but are also completely untrainable, there are no forensic labs to examine malware, and Indian citizens can't even report these matters anywhere! The only option available are the courts but hiring lawyers, especially when your business is wrecked can be not only expensive but prohibitive as well.

That is why many victims of cyber crime simply stop pursuing the matter with the police and cyber criminals  get away, while the corrupt police make money out of it! In our case, we decided that we will not let the corrupt police, government and cyber criminals get away with what they are doing. So, we decided to fight our case in court ourselves. That is, we are both the complainant as well as the advocate for our case. And we have filed a criminal complaint in court against over 25 police officers in U.P. Police as well as the U.P. state government, including the Chief Minister, Yogi Adityanath himself.

The government of India, as well as most of the states operate "public grievance" portals but they are basically useless. Because they only transfer a complaint from one person to another, and close it suddenly without even checking if the issue is resolved. In other words, the question of ownership until resolution, simply does not exist in the Indian public grievance redressal system.

The Indian government runs a "cybercrime reporting portal", called cybercrime.gov.in which is hardly of any use. The portal itself is manned by low-level, literally illiterate workers who have zero understanding of cyber  crime. And then, the next challenge is for an individual to either reach someone on their helpline 1930 or even access it properly on the web. This portal itself is built on the premise that a crime qualifies as a cyber crime only if someone has taken out money fraudulently from your account! Any other kind of cybercrime is not even considered.

It's time to ensure that a proper cyber law-enforcement agency is established in every state in India and is appropriately trained and equipped to combat the burgeoning menace of cybercrime. 

Stand with us as we call for the creation of specialized cybersecurity police forces across every state in India. Please, sign this petition.