Adjudication of cyber crime cases is “the best option”, as in most cases it is difficult to legally prove them “beyond reasonable doubt”, said a senior police officer in charge of cyber crimes here on Friday.
Speaking at a workshop on information security, D. Roopa, Superintendent of Police in the CID’s Cyber Division, said, “The IT Secretary in the State ought to normally be the person in charge of the adjudicating process in the State, but this not happening in Karnataka.”
Pointing out that hacking, phishing, cyber squatting (the duplication of domain names), identity theft and other criminal activities are on the rise, Ms. Roopa said, “It has become difficult to even enforce injunctions granted by courts.”
Referring to the recent cases of impersonation, which result in fraudulent online withdrawals from bank accounts of victims, Ms. Roopa said, “It has even become difficult to identify the addresses of beneficiaries of such transactions.”
“These criminals not only hide their physical addresses but use fake IP (Internet Protocol) addresses for their transactions,” she said. The physical addresses given to banks, especially private banks, are false, as are those given to Internet Service Providers, she added.
Ms. Roopa said that several cases of “sale” of ATM cards and of bank account details have come to light. “Also, we do not get much cooperation from police in other States,” she said.
Referring to crimes committed from across the borders, Ms. Roopa said that the process of making an arrest requires “lengthy proceedings, which start with getting the concurrence of the Ministry of Home Affairs”.
She pointed out that there is not even a single case of such a criminal having been arrested overseas. “Under these circumstances, it is much better if users of the Internet try and protect themselves from such crimes,” she said.
Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry president R. Shivakumar urged companies to train employees to observe practices that do not compromise security.
The FKCCI organised the workshop.
