Kolkata: The West Bengal government plans to introduce baseline cyber standards at its IT parks and fast fund-freeze protocols to curb escalating digital fraud risks.
The expanding IT and ITeS footprint in West Bengal has brought this focus on cybersecurity to the fore.
The state currently hosts 22 IT parks, two electronic manufacturing clusters and a hardware park, while several marquee IT and telecom companies are scaling up operations in Kolkata’s Bengal Silicon Valley hub.
While this expanding ecosystem is attracting businesses, it is also drawing financially motivated cybercriminals.
Widespread adoption of AI has lowered the cost and complexity of cybercrime.
Attackers now use AI voice cloning, deepfake IDs and automated phishing tools to run hyper-targeted, highly realistic scams at scale.
West Bengal plans different actions to counter these cybercrime threats. There needs to be integrated reporting and analytics through national platforms to map mule accounts and criminal networks.
A strong coordination is mooted between the police, banks and telecom operators to enable rapid fund freezes.
Last but not least, West Bengal plans sustained public-awareness campaigns, especially targeting senior citizens and first-time digital users.
Finally, West Bengal plans to integrate the cyber helpline with real-time financial fraud monitoring.
In addition, there are plans for a cross-state crackdown to help dismantle digital-arrest syndicates.
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