Investigating Cybercrime News Reporting in Indian Online News Media

Abstract

 Internet is being actively used world over. Covid 19 pandemic have brought a steep rise in internet use by users of all age groups. In India specifically, there are total 692 million active internet users that includes 351 million users from rural India and 341 from urban India. Without a doubt, the advantages of internet use are numerous. It is but obvious that with such a high rate of internet use, online world also opens up platforms for ever increasing cybercrimes in country. Increased online time, lack of awareness among internet users are popular reasons for the increased cybercrime trends. Moreover, lack of technical knowledge among professionals adds to the complications in solving cybercrime cases. Hackers, on the other hand, are coming up with new and innovative modus operandi to scam more and more people. This paper analyses the cybercrime related news content of leading news websites in India. The research is conducted to investigate cybercrime news reporting, identify the increase in cybercrimes and to understand the types of cybercrimes taking place in the country. It attempts to understand the most popular strategies being adopted by online attackers for luring online users. This paper attempts to create necessary mindfulness while using the internet. It is analyzed that cybercrime awareness campaigns of government are unable to make an impact at a larger level.