Cyber-crime is a challenge amidst changing technology'

Mangalore, September 14: One of the biggest challenges of cyber-crime is that it is transnational. It is not limited by boundaries, making it difficult for intelligence agencies to check and solve such crime, said Inspector General of Police (Western Range) Pratap Reddy.

He was delivering the key-note address at the inaugural session of a state-level seminar on 'Cyber Crime' organised by Department of Criminology and Forensic Sciences and Secretarial Practices of Roshni Nilaya School of Social Work in collaboration with Western Range Police, Mangalore, on Friday.

He said that in cases of cyber-crime, the perpetrator did not have to be near a person to commit a crime. It is difficult to investigate cases where criminals are transnational as laws protect seamless sharing of evidence even in friendly countries. It is a challenge for experts to handle such cases, he said.

Talking about the legal challenges involved, he said that the IT Act of India (2000) had been amended in 2008 within a short period of eight years, as the law had to be up-to-date with the technology. “But the difficulty for police officers was coping with changing technology, which becomes difficult for the local and local police who are given this task. The law enforcement has to keep specialising in this field. We create specialised centres and agencies where they try to focus on developing expertise and handling sophisticated cases,” he said.

Another difficulty in investigating cyber-crime was the reliability of external experts in the field, as there was a lack of full-fledged in-house experts, he said.

Talking about the present scenario, he said that among 1000 million mobile connections in India, the problem was the lax personal attention of the users regarding the gadgets they used for surfing. He said that it was becoming easy for a mischief-monger to get his hands on personal details of any individual. “There have been occasions where Facebook accounts have been used to gather information to commit crimes. Hence it is essential to fundamentally understand the security concerns of cyber-crime and how to protect ourselves from it,” he said.

Delivering the presidential address, Principal of Roshni Nilaya Dr Sophia N Fernandes said that the internet had tremendously changed the world. While the advantages of information technology outweigh the disadvantages, it is high time we look at the negative aspects of it. A secure cyber space and information domain has become the need of the hour, she said.

She said that crime was a misdirected energy which needed to be directed towards right channels.

Dr Jacinta D'Souza, former principal of the College, said that it was vital that awareness be created on the importance of criminology and forensic science. Due to cyber-crime, there had been a loss of Rs 42,000 crore in the last year, and every minute, there were 8 victims who were duped, she said.

On the occasion, Pratap Reddy unveiled the new logo of the Department of Criminology and Forensic Science of the college.

Dr B Ashok delivered the introductory speech on the seminar.