Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Truecaller, the world’s leading global communications platform, in collaboration with CyberPeace Foundation, a non-partisan civil society organization, conducted their first training in Karnataka as part of the ongoing national #TrueCyberSafe campaign. The training focused on increasing awareness about cybercrime and building the capacity to navigate digital communication safely. Ms. Pramila Naidu, Chairperson-State Commission for Women and Chairman-Rajya Mahila Ayoga, Karnataka, Mr. BS Angadi, KSPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime 2, Bengaluru along with Pragya of Truecaller and Mr. Purnendu Singh of CyberPeace Foundation spoke at the event that was attended by students, faculties of various universities, police officers and others held at B.M.S. College of Engineering.
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Ms. Pragya Misra, Director of Public Affairs at Truecaller India with other important dignitaries from Cyber Peace Foundation, BMS College at the TrueCyberSafe training in Bengaluru
The campaign has already reached close to 3 lakh Indians so far through impactful training sessions in the North Eastern Region and New Delhi. Through these awareness sessions, the attendees learn about the recent cyber scams and frauds, safety measures that people can take and the reporting mechanisms available within Truecaller and otherwise that allow for relevant authorities like the Police to take action.
Gracing the event by her presence, Ms. Pramila Naidu, Chairperson-State Commission for Women and Chairman-Rajya Mahila Ayoga, Karnataka said, “The Commission’s primary responsibility is to safeguard the rights of women and proactively work to improve the safety and security of women in Karnataka. Traditionally, we had mostly been dealing with cases of physical abuse, like domestic violence and acid attack. However, recently we have seen that cases of digital fraud and online harassment are also increasing. While there have been numerous benefits of increased access to smartphones and technology for women, it has also exposed them to both new and old harms in the digital space. However, my message here would be to reinforce that the Commission is prepared and we are here to create awareness and provide support and protection to women. I am thankful that Truecaller and CPF have taken this initiative to build capacity on this issue, and I am sure that it will help everyone who joins the #TrueCyberSafe campaign to access and interact with digital spaces in a safe and secure manner.”
The technical interactive training session at BMS College and R.V. College of Engineering focused on the different types of threats and frauds in the digital world and ended with equipping attendees with best practices, tools and skills needed to protect themselves from harm. Numerous safety features within Truecaller like auto block, spam tagging, one-click national helpline, smart SMS and much more were spotlighted as well. At the end of the session, the participants were encouraged to become active contributors to #TrueCyberSafe by sharing the knowledge with their friends and family, ensuring that more and more people can help make digital communication safe.
Mr. BS Angadi, KSPS, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Crime 2, Bengaluru, said, “As the state with the tech capital of India, Karnataka has the highest recorded cyber crime rate in India. One of the main reasons for this is that we have made it easier for citizens to report cyber crimes in Karnataka. Cyber Crimes police stations have been established in each district, and citizens in Karnataka can directly report cybercrimes on the 112 helpline. The Karnataka model of the Cybercrime Incident Report (CIR) system has made it easier for citizens to file complaints and is being studied for implementation in other states as well. We are cognizant of the threat posed by cybercriminals and are proactively working to prevent online fraud and harassment. In this context, I would like to congratulate both Truecaller and CPF for taking this initiative and helping to create awareness amongst citizens on how to have a safe digital experience.”
Addressing the dignitaries and the audience,the Principal, BMSCE, Dr. S Muralidhara said, “In today’s world when the internet is rapidly growing and everybody is online all the time, people often ignore their safety and security. Our contact information is highly susceptible to getting into the wrong hands and resulting in people getting vulnerable online. Often we users get unwanted calls and messages leading to gullible public getting trapped by cyber criminals. To educate everybody, we are happy and honored to share that CyberPeace Foundation and TrueCaller have joined hands to launch the campaign #TrueCyberSafe at BMS College of Engineering Bengaluru. I would request all the students, teachers, staff members to be part of this initiative and spread the message about the campaign in their family circles, so as to give people the knowledge and tools to be safe online.”
Ms. Pragya Misra, Director of Public Affairs, Truecaller said, “Almost all the activities in our daily lives, whether social, economic, educational, are overlapping in digital spaces. There are immense benefits that the internet and use of technology bring but it lends itself to challenges like spam and fraud that we must protect ourselves from. At Truecaller, safety continues to be an absolute priority and we are constantly working towards building trust in communication over phone and SMS by making it safe. With the TrueCyberSafe initiative, we are expanding the scope of our efforts to increase awareness about Cyber fraud and build user capacity on how people can stay safe while communicating. We are happy to be bringing this national campaign to Karnataka, and I hope that along with the efforts of the government and the police, we are able to make communication safer for more Indians.”
Talking about the CyberPeace-The Need of the hour, Mr. Purnendu Singh, Director-Operations and Strategy, CyberPeace Foundation said, “#TrueCyberSafe is a monumental initiative to eradicate the menace of cybercrime from cyberspace, by sowing the fruitful seeds of awareness and knowledge among the people. Awareness among children and elderly is essential as they are most vulnerable, hence safeguarding the youngsters will in turn safeguard the future generations. CyberPeace Foundation in collaboration with various corporates and govt agencies have launched various projects to strengthen the online safety and security, some of these projects are-E-Raksha, E-Shakti, E-Saksham, Safety Track and various hackathons, hence today with #TrueCyberSafe campaign we consolidate our take on war against cyber crimes more efficiently. Stay CyberSafe !! Stay CyberSecure !!”
The joint initiative was launched nationwide in February 2022. The campaign aims to create awareness by training 15 lakh people across 5 regions of India to tackle cyber fraud leading to a safer digital communication and increasing awareness about the steps that our users can take to avoid fraud, spam and scams. The campaign will gradually be launched in two other regions in the upcoming months.
