Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said there was a need to build awareness among people on cyber frauds and stop scamsters from gaming the system.

Speaking at the ‘Date with Tech’ event here, the minister said the government periodically reviews public sector banks to prevent cyber fraud. The regulator RBI reviews its systems and so do insurance companies.

“We are constantly doing what is required. Unless awareness, unless we can build that alertness in the mind of people that I should not go by anything that is said on my phone is built, citizens are at risk,” Sitharaman said.

“Those people who game the system probably are one notch ahead of us in terms of using and misusing technology. On that, there is a lot of work required. It is a never-ending game because technology is such an animal that keeps moving and racing ahead of you. You have to be sure that you got the reins in your hand,” Sitharaman said.

The minister said large institutions, systemically sensitive institutions should have enough technology and teams adequately trained to firewall on an everyday basis, and keep checking whether the firewall is up to the job or not.

“On the other hand, we have concerns about people calling you and asking you to transfer money and bringing some legitimacy in the conversation by knowing some details about you and you tend to believe that it could be a genuine thing,” she said.

Sitharaman assured that customer data shared with account aggregators (AA) is completely safe in India.

Concerned over the slow movement of the AA scheme, she said, “It is not as much as I would want to see. It can be better, which means either the building of awareness exercises are not sufficient, adequate” or there is a need for simplification of technology.