17th Cybercrime Awareness Workshop for Law Enforcement Agencies held
Mangaluru: The Government of India Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in association with Karnataka Police and NASSCOM jointly organized a two-day “17th Cybercrime Awareness Workshop for Law Enforcement Agencies”, at the Conference Hall, Police Commissioner’s office premises here on May 30.
The programme began with an invocation. Police Commissioner Chandra Sekhar welcomed the gathering. In his welcome address, Chandra Sekhar said, “The Data security council of India has already conducted 16 workshops in order to increase awareness regarding cyber crime, cyber investigation, cyber forensics and other issues related to cyber crime. Cyber crime is an area where our investigating and enforcement officers have lot of challenges and the challenges are bound to increase such technology and its use in all walks of life. We have been seeing an increase in conventional offenses and in a number of cases we need to collect digital evidence. Many cases fail in the court because of lack of evidence which we fail to collect.”
Chandra Sekhar further said, “Technology is increasing at a rapid pace and the social media has made huge advances, social media is also creating a lot of problems for law and order situations. In Mangaluru we are facing lot of problems because of the derogatory comments on social media. We are facing lot of problems and we are addressing the issue. But we need to improve technical competence to deal with the issue. We need to ensure that the case goes to a logical conclusion. I hope the officers who have been chosen will benefit from the workshop. Skill development and constant upgradation of skills are very much required in every field. We should ensure the flow of new ideas and new technologies and master them. We are in an era where everything is going to be online and increase in cyber crime is a reality which we cannot walk away from. We need someone to be an expert at the station-level. This workshop is basically to ensure that you should be able to guide your people.”
ADGP CID Pratap Reddy IPS speaking on the occasion said, “Karnataka state police and CID are working together from the last 17 years. This is the first state to inaugurate the first cyber crime police station. Our daily lives are invariably linked with the computer, Network and mobiles. We cannot visualize the scenario where without these networks we would be able to survive. When a murderer uses advanced digital technics to conceal himself or when there is a physical assault on the person and he dies or if anyone is injured the accused comes face to face with the victim. The accused will leave some or the other traces or evidence. But the challenge today in cybercrime scenario is that the physical presence of the accused is absolutely not necessary. The accused can sit thousands of kilometers away and commit the crime and so will be difficult to find out the accused. The social media is fully encrypted and it is not easy for the investigating agency to find out the truth. Technology is changing very fast. Continuous upgradation of skills is essential for investigating officers. Continuous upgradation of skills is the objective of the workshop.”
Addressing the gathering DGP CID Karnataka Police Kishore Chandra IPS said, “Karnataka cybercrime is pioneer in investigation and establishment. Every case registered anywhere they should be investigated in the regional-level. Cybercrime is not a white color offense because in white color offense there is the physical presence of a accused and there is documentation which we can detect. In Cybercrime, we do not know who is committing the crime. It requires lot of thinking to investigate cyber crimes. No police officer can be an expert or no expert can be an expert in all aspects of cybercrime. We really require an expert to investigate cybercrimes.”
Kishore Chandra further said, “We have to learn how to prevent the misuse of computers. Police officers should have the knowledge to approach the right person to investigate cyber crimes. Training is a continuous process. Challenges increase day-by-day. Nowadays people are addicted to WhatsApp. Anyone is not on WhatsApp is called an anti-social animal. If many of the police officers are trained we can prevent crimes, Every crime prevented in cyber is also a crime detected”.
IGP of Western Range P Harishekaran also spoke on the occasion. DCP Crime and Traffic Dr Sanjeev Patil delivered the vote of thanks. DCP Law and Order Shantharaju, ACP Udaya Nayak, ACP Tilakchandra, ACP Shruti and others were also present.