MARCH 20208ith more than 460 million internet users, India is globally the second largest internet market after China. Research estimates the number of internet users to rise to 829 million by 2021, possibly making India the largest internet market and bringing a significant portion of our population online. Increased relevance of internet in India's mainstream economy and the magnitude of its usage in the country place issues impacting the cyberspace ecosystem to the fore of any discourse by brands. Yet cybersafety remains an Achilles heel for companies since a large swathe of these users are unaware of the perils that the cyberworld has to offer. The Internet has added a new dimension to our interactions with each other and more so for companies to engage with their customers proactively. However there are cyber malicious equivalents of almost all behaviours that people demonstrate online owing largely to the anonymity that the internet offers. Widespread adoption of new internet led services and proliferation of these services across the remote corners of the country have led to a rise of a new form of cyber frauds that were unheard of before. Frauds such as social engineering scams, phishing scams, digital identity thefts, UPI led payment scams and more are growing at a rapid pace perpetrated by individuals who surprisingly have an arsenal of not very sophisticated tools at their disposal. Incidences of cybercrimes have been on the rise in the last couple of years across the internet. Sample this, a study by cybersecurity company, McAfee in December 2019 estimates that around 28.6 per cent of Indians have lost between INR 15,000 to INR 20,000 due to spurious or misleading retail websites while overwhelmingly 56.1 per cent Indians have fallen victim to discount scams, by clicking on unverified links for malicious websites. A report from India's apex central bank, RBI, shows that frauds reported by Indian banks in the first half of the 2019 fiscal year touched an all-time high of Rs 1.13 lakh crore. This figure in FY19 was Rs 71,000 crore. Not only industries but even key cities like the silicon valley of India, Bengaluru have not been spared from nets cast by cybercrooks. The city registered the most number of cybercrime cases in 2018 owing largely to the widespread adoption. As a key player in the internet economy of India, we recognised this societal challenge early on and realised the burgeoning gap between brands and consumers towards cyber safety education. Over the last couple of years, as cyber fraud has widened its reach across multiple domains including e-commerce, fin-tech platforms, social media firms and even enterprise productivity software, internet companies have been bolstering their efforts to thwart off this new age menace. As brands gradually realise that there is no panacea to this incredibly complex challenge, they have been working towards forging partnerships with civil society organisations and government. At OLX, we partnered with Cyber Peace foundation to run cyber WIN MY OPINIONDIGITAL SAFETY: A CHINK IN THE ARMOUR OF DIGITAL INDIABy Sapna Arora, CMO, OLX IndiaSapna has extensive experience in leading major brands through a creative turnaround and in inspiring engagement with consumers in new ways
< Page 7 | Page 9 >