Cyber police to launch mobile services

The Cyber Crime cell, coming under the Criminal Investigation Department, is all set to launch the country's first mobile cyber crime service.

The mobile cyber crime cell will be operational in the next few weeks, Director-General of Police (CID), D.V. Guruprasad, told The Hindu .

He said the CID had decided to launch a mobile cyber cell service to ensure that cyber cell personnel could be at the spot of a crime within a short time of the occurrence of the crime.

The CID, he said, had purchased a van and it was being fitted at the motor transport section of the police. The van was being fitted with the state-of-the-art technology to detect cyber crimes complete with latest cyber tools.

Depending upon the result of the mobile cell, more such vehicles will be pressed into service. The mobile cell is expected to cut down on investigation time as personnel in the van can commence work from the vehicle itself instead of going back to the cyber cell office or to an Internet enabled place.

Mr. Guruprasad said apart from the mobile cyber cell, the CID had taken several other steps to ensure that the cyber cell kept itself abreast of latest trends in information technology (IT).

He said the cyber cell was closely coordinating with NASSCOM, the apex body of IT in India, in its endeavour to fight cyber crime. Besides, the cell was in constant touch with IT majors in securing equipment, training police personnel in information technology and for upgrading their skills.

He said the cell had trained a core group of policemen in each of the district in IT. The core group, he said, would investigate cases of cyber crimes in their jurisdiction. The cyber cell of the CID would step in and help the district units if need be, he said.

With the district cyber cells now becoming competent in investigating cyber crimes, the load on the CID Cyber cell had decreased considerably. Last year, the cyber cell registered 40 cases, which it was investigating. This year, the cell was dealing with 11 cases.

The CID cyber cell's training module seems to have paid off as policemen trained by it have managed to successfully cracked cases in Uttara Kannada (where a photograph of a seer of a math was morphed), Bagalkot (where a Nigerian online fraud was detected) and Mysore (Internet fraud).

The CID hopes that the mobile cyber cell would act as an interface between the headquarters (Bangalore) and other areas.