A Parliamentary panel report on Thursday said online banking frauds causing losses of Rs 5.90 crore were registered in 2009, an indication of the increasing pace with which fraudsters are using technology to dupe the public. 

"The Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance has reported online banking frauds worth Rs 590.49 lakh in the year 2009," Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Communication and Information and technology said.

The CBI has registered six cases of cyber crime, which caused financial loss of Rs 2,70,650 to the government/private person, it added. With the advent of e-banking in the country, number of online frauds and cyber criminals has gone up. They thrive on the lack of knowledge among users and use technology loopholes to conduct their crime and dupe the public of its money.

Using various means like hacking, fake websites and spam mails, customers are duped to give all banking details. The number and password are then used to carry out transactions on their behalf without their knowledge.

On whether the victims were given compensation, the panel said, "Section 43 and 43A of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000 provides for compensation for the damages suffered by the victims of computer crimes and frauds."

On the other hand, Section 66 and Section 72A provides punishment in the form of imprisonment and fine to the perpetrator, it added. Under the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12), cyber security plans has been allocated Rs 600 crore, of which about Rs 122 crore has been utilised.

"In the year 2011-12, Rs 46 crore is proposed to be used towards cyber security," it said. Another sign of increasing cyber crime is the attack on the government websites.

A total of 106, 201 and 315 government websites were hacked during the years 2008, 2009 and 2010, respectively, directed from countries like the US, UK, Pakistan, China, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Nigeria, among others.

"With the changing technology, challenges such as collection of digital evidence, attribution of attacks to particular systems, anonymous and border less nature of cyber space are being faced," it said.

However, to meet these challenges, the Department of Information Technology is providing training on cyber security, best practices, cyber forensics to people at different levels like general public, law enforcement agencies and judicial officers.

"There is also an urgent need to increase the training infrastructure and the number of trainers in the country so that sufficient awareness about cyber security is generated, which will help in preventing cyber attacks," it said.