Various measures have been taken by the government to strengthen cyber security in the financial sector

Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tool ‘MuleHunter’ for the identification of money mules has been launched by RBI

NEW DELHI, MARCH 18, 2025: The Government has been constantly engaging with the financial sector regulators and other concerned stakeholders to strengthen cyber security. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has established the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (l4C) as an attached office to provide a framework and eco-system for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to deal with cybercrimes in a comprehensive and coordinated manner.

The MHA has also launched the National Cyber Crime Reporting portal(https://cybercrime.gov.in) to enable the public to report all types of cyber crimes. Cybercrime incidents reported on this portal are routed automatically to the respective State/UT LEAs for further handling as per the provisions of law. The ‘Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System’ has been launched for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off fund by the fraudsters. So far, an amount of Rs. 4386 Crore (approx..) has been saved involving 13.36 lakh complaints. Further suspect registry of identifiers of cyber criminals has been launched by MHA in collaboration with Banks/Financial institutions.

In order to reinforce the security of digital transactions, various initiatives have been taken by the Government, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) from time to time. RBI issued Master Directions on Digital Payment Security Controls in February 2021 to combat web and mobile app threats. These guidelines mandate that banks implement common minimum standards of security controls for various payment channels like the Internet, mobile banking, card payment etc. RBI has also launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI) based tool ‘MuleHunter’ for the identification of money mules and advised the banks and financial institutions for its uses.

Similarly, NPCI has also implemented device binding between the customer’s mobile number and the device, two-factor authentication through PIN, daily transaction limit, limits and curbs on use cases etc to secure UPI transactions. NPCI also provides a fraud monitoring solution to all the banks to generate alerts and decline transactions by using AI/ML-based models. RBI and Banks have also been taking up awareness campaigns through short SMS, radio campaigns, publicity on prevention of ‘cyber-crime’ etc.

This information was given by Minister of State For Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.