Parl Panel Summons Google, Apple, Startups To Address Cybercrimes, White Collar Crimes

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has summoned banks and tech giants like Apple and Google over cybersecurity and the rising incident of cybercrimes and white-collar crimes on July 4 (Tuesday).

The panel, headed by Lok Sabha MP Jayant Sinha, has summoned senior officials of various banks and the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) to give detailed presentations on the topic.

The parliamentary panel’s agenda said, “Oral evidence of the representatives of Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of India, Yes Bank and Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) on the subject ‘Cyber security and rising incidence of cyber/white collar crimes’”.

Representatives from the startup ecosystem and big tech companies, including Paytm, Flipkart, Google and Apple, have also been called for a discussion on the issues. 

Earlier, the panel held multiple meetings on the same issue. In June, it summoned representatives from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Finance (Department of Financial Services) and NPCI to address the rising incidence of cybercrimes.

In May, representatives of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indian Banks’ Association (IBA), NPCI and CERT-In also met the members of the panel.

The meeting comes at a time when the Centre has been trying to rein in big tech companies. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs summoned representatives from these companies for discussions on the proposed digital competition law.

As for cybersecurity issues, the absence of a data protection law is still being felt. India has become one of the most impacted countries in terms of cyberattacks. 

Indian organisations reported 1,787 cyber attacks a week on an average between September 2022 and March 2023, compared to the global average of 983, according to cybersecurity solutions company, CheckPoint.

There have also been several reported incidents of data leaks at Indian startups over the recent past. In April, furniture rental startup RentoMojo suffered a data breach impacting nearly 1 Lakh users. 

The likes of Slick, RailYatri and Yes Madam have also suffered data leaks over the past few months, indicating the high volume of cyberattacks Indian companies face.