In 2019-2020, the number of cybercrimes in the country has increased alarmingly, along with other online account hacking or information theft. A study by the Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation (CCA Foundation), a voluntary organization, has identified a new crime, such as ATM card hacking. In the ongoing corona pandemic situation, online shopping has increased more than ever before, and more people are being deceived into buying products online. The research report suggests the formation of a ‘cyber squad’ with public-private partners to establish healthy cyberculture in the country as a whole.
The research report titled ‘Cyber Crime Trend in Bangladesh-2021’ was released on Friday on the occasion of the 6th founding anniversary of the CCA Foundation.
Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar was the chief guest at the online event presided over by the president of the organization Kazi Mustafiz.
Munir Hasan, Head of Youth Programs, Daily Prothom Alo, Khandaker Farzana Rahman, Chairperson, Department of Criminology, Dhaka University, Additional Superintendent of Police (Forensic), Police Bureau of Investigation, Mostafa Kamal Rashed, Kazi Anish, Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Comilla University; MA Haque Anu, Secretary-General, Bangladesh Internet Governance Forum; and Sharmin Nahar Lina, Bangladesh Representative, Protect As Kids were also present on the panel.
Monira Nazmi Jahan, the convener of the research cell of the CCA Foundation and senior lecturer in the law department of East-West University, gave details of the research report.
This research report is based on the regular survey of CCA Foundation in a total of 11 tabs. The overall results show that the level of four types of crime has decreased in the country. On the other hand, the level of six types of crime has increased.
With the passage of time, this type of crime is appearing in various forms with the various dimensional developments of the cyberworld. The number of victims of these crimes among the general public is increasing day by day. However, despite being victims of cybercrime, the rate of complaints from law enforcement to these victims is disappointing. In the analysis of crime, it is said that besides increasing ‘cyber awareness’ in the country, ‘cyber literacy’ should also be increased.
The study analyzed the comparative statistics of cybercrime and found that in the first place, the incidence of other online account hacking, including social media, is 28.31 percent. In the 2019 report, the rate was 15.35 percent, which was about 13 percent less than this time. Although the incidence of social media propaganda was 22.33 percent in the 2019 report, this time the number has come down to 16.31 percent.
The second type of crime is propaganda using social media. Hopefully, the crime rate has come down a bit. In the last study where this complaint was 22.33 percent. This time it has been reduced to 16.31 percent. But the level of harassment using sexually explicit private moments/videos (pornography) has increased. The crime rate has increased from 6.05 percent to 6.79 percent this time. However, the incidents of harassment by distorting the pictures of the victims using Photoshop have decreased. The crime rate has come down to less than half this time from last time to 5.85 percent.
Meanwhile, the level of crime and threatening by sending online messages has risen to the third top position this time. However, the crime rate has come down by about three percent to 14.16 percent as compared to the previous report, which was 16.67 percent last time.
