Experts and police officials advocate safe browsing and online transactions to combat cybercrime

The recent rise in reports of cybercrime and digital harassment requires both the police and the public at large to be alert when going online, experts said at a conference hosted by the Department of Computer Science, Bharathidasan University in association with All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and National Cyber Security Research Council (NCSRC) on Friday.

The recent rise in reports of cybercrime and digital harassment requires both the police and the public at large to be alert when going online, experts said at a conference hosted by the Department of Computer Science, Bharathidasan University in association with All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and National Cyber Security Research Council (NCSRC) on Friday.

M. Manohar, Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Tiruchi Region, said: “Cyber security is a vast field, and crimes committed in this sector are slowly overtaking those in the real world. Cyber crimes are reported actively in States such as Tamil Nadu and Telangana. Unlike before, they are being registered with First Information Report (FIR), to facilitate their legal investigation.” The official added that cybercrimes keep evolving, as perpetrators target different groups of people.

“Of late, senior citizen and job seekers have been scammed. A more insidious crime, ‘sextortion’, which involves blackmail and threats of exposure, has targeted young women. Victims usually panic and end up losing large amounts of money to cyber criminals. We urge the public to be safe while surfing the Internet, and use your personal banking information cautiously, especially while shopping online or downloading material,” Mr. Manohar said.

In his address, E. Khalieraaj, director, NCSRC, and vice-president (Information Technology), Indo-Russian IT Association, said that besides awareness, the country needed more experts on the ground to deal with cyber crimes.

Speaking about the “Hackathon X” competition to be held on October 26 as part of the conference, Mr. Khalieraaj said that it was important to give rural students opportunities in tech-related fields.

“We are interested to see the growing participation of women students in hackathons. We want to identify talent and make up an army of cyber warriors through these events,” he said.

Portals such as the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) were a useful tool for investigation of cyber crimes, and should be utilised more widely, Mr. Khalieraaj added.