India's 2026 Cybercrime Crackdown: 2,500 Officers Trained in Digital Forensics

Top sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) told ANI that the training process of such personnel of various LEAs is expectedly to double by the end of next year, with a focus on curbing the cyber threat landscape in India that has reached a critical inflexion point, marked by an unprecedented volume and sophistication of threats targeting both organisations and individuals.

"All the law enforcement agencies nationwide belonging to states and Union Territories have been onboarded under this framework to enhance coordination and operational synergy, and over 2500 personnel are trained in the latest forensic tools and techniques to deal with cyber crimes," an official, privy to the development, said.

As per MHA data, a total of "2,118 LEA personnel were trained on the latest forensic tools and techniques till October 31, 2025."

In addition, the Centre's National Cyber Forensic (Investigation) Laboratory (NCFL-I) has provided services to state LEAs in approximately 12,952 cybercrime cases as of the end of October. NCFL (I), a 'state-of-the-art' facility, was established in Delhi's Dwarka under the I4C in 2019 to provide forensic assistance to LEAs and other central agencies during investigations. States and UTs across the country are utilising its services or facilities. A new NCFL (I) laboratory has been set up in Assam, to provide cyber forensic facilities and enhance digital investigation capabilities of all LEAs, mainly working in the North East Region and Sikkim. This is operationalised since August 29, 2025.

MHA's Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C)-- a specialised unit formally approved in October 2018 with its headquarters inaugurated in New Delhi on January 10, 2020 to serve as a nodal body to coordinate cybercrime response aimed at enhancing national capacity in preventing, detecting, and investigating cybercrimes--in further move to suppress the menace has constituted seven Joint Cyber Coordination Teams (JCCTs) across the country to strengthen inter-state coordination in tackling cybercrime.

The teams have been set up in seven identified cybercrime hotspots, Mewat, Jamtara, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Visakhapatnam, and Guwahati, to address multi-jurisdictional cases.

These seven JCCTs were established under I4C, covering the entire country based on cybercrime hotspots and multi-jurisdictional areas, and onboarding states and UTs to enhance coordination among LEAs across states and UTs.

For analytics-based interstate linkages of crimes and criminals involved in cybercrime in various states and UTs, another official said, 'Samanvaya' and 'Pratibimb' platforms are being used extensively to contain cybercrime activities by catching criminals involved in cybercrimes.

Samanvaya is operational as a Management Information System (MIS) platform, data repository, and coordination platform for LEAs to support cybercrime data sharing and analytics.

The module 'Pratibimb' maps criminal locations and crime infrastructure to provide visibility to jurisdictional officers. The module also facilitates seeking and receiving techno-legal assistance by LEAs from I4C and other Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Additional MHA data reveal that 'Pratibimb' has led to the arrest of 16,840 accused and 1,05,129 Cyber Investigation assistance requests.

Additionally, Cyber Forensic Labs in states and UTs have been established under the Cyber Crime Prevention against Women and Children (CCPWC) Scheme, launched in 2018. Under this Scheme, MHA had provided financial assistance to the tune of Rs 131.60 crores to states and UTs for the setting up of Cyber Forensic Consultants. Cyber Forensic-cum-Training Laboratories have been commissioned in 33 states and UTs.

The Central government has also institutionalised a nationwide integrated and coordinated system to deal with cyber threats. The National Cyber Security Coordinator (NCSC) under the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) ensures coordination among agencies, whereas I4C addresses cybercrimes in a coordinated and effective manner.

The MHA has also established CyMAC (Cyber Multi Agency Centre) under the MAC (Multi Agency Centre) platform with participating agencies like IB, CIRA, DCYA, DoT, Cert-In, I4C, NCIIPC and NIC, to effectively address cybercrime, cyber espionage, cyber terrorism, cyber security threats, misuse of emerging technologies against national security and similar concerns. The CyMAC platform serves as a unified and strategic platform to enhance cyber resilience across all Cyber cybersecurity agencies.

"All agencies are being encouraged to fully integrate with this system to strengthen National Cyber Defence and safeguard Indian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure," said another official in the government.

- ANI