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Home » Features » Internet Internet & Software » Keeping India Safe Online
Keeping India Safe Online
By: Francis Dsa  &  Dushyant Khilnani   |   Jul 03, 2009

When seventeen-year-old Rajesh went over to his friend Joshua’s house to finish work on a college presentation, he had no idea that his actions that night would set off a huge police investigation. As soon as he arrived and turned on his laptop to create a PowerPoint slideshow, it started detecting wireless networks in the vicinity. He ignored the popup messages for a while, but during a short break a few hours later curiosity got the better of him, and he decided to see if he could get online.

The first two networks he tried to connect to required passwords, and a third connected but didn’t allow Rajesh to load any websites. However the fourth network he tried, simply named “default”, was lying wide open. He was able to check his mail and chat with friends within seconds. The two boys took full advantage of the open connection, surfing the Web and downloading music. At one point, Joshua got into an online argument with a girl he had tried to ask out the previous week. In a fit of anger, he decided to play a cruel prank on her and created a fake Orkut account in order to leave hurtful scraps for her to read. He figured that even if she realized it was him, his own computer’s IP address wouldn’t be linked to the account. Rajesh, for his part, thought it was a brilliant idea.

It was only the next evening that Anandita, the object of Joshua’s attention, got a call from a friend about the vulgar scraps on her profile page. Shaken, she immediately checked her account and saw them. She knew without a doubt who had left the comments there, especially considering the timing of her fight with Joshua the previous night. She wondered whether to just delete them and forget the whole episode, but eventually told her father about the whole thing.

Anandita, together with her enraged father, approached the Mumbai police, who directed them to the Cyber Crime Investigation Cell. The complaint was acted on immediately, and not only was Joshua apprehended, but his neighbor, whose IP address was unfortunately linked to the crime because of weak router security, was given a stern warning.

The moment anyone accesses cyberspace, anonymity is impossible. it is much easier to catch somebody when he’s online than otherwise, simply because once a person logs on to the internet, he leaves footprints behind.
The names in the story above have been changed, but similar real-life incidents have been making headlines in the newspapers for a while now. Take for instance the various reports of students posting obscene or defamatory statements about their schools online, or the bomb threats sent to the police through unsecured Wi-Fi networks. People even deface websites or install illegal keyloggers on others’ computers just to see whether or not anyone will be smart enough to trace them. So how do the police cope with these new-age nuisances and keep criminals and pranksters under control?

Mumbai has had a Cyber Crime Investigation Cell for nearly a decade, but now the effort to rein in online crime has been boosted by a dedicated police station. Such stations already exist in Bangalore and Hyderabad, making Mumbai the third city to create a dedicated force of police officers to chase online criminals. The CCIC is now equipped with the latest equipment, expertise, and more importantly, trained officers. CHIP met with Addl. Commissioner of Police Mr Deven Bharti, who directly supervises and controls the working of the Mumbai CCIC.

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Good one tech2, awareness is the key and people should not take anything lightly
krizanand @ Nov 22, 2009
The Police does not need white collar techies who go by the book and follow strict one to one instructions, the cops need to find guys with hacking, cracking pasts to help them, if the Mumbai police would have done it, they would have been at par with these criminals or rather a step ahead.
shahjahan ahmed @ Oct 04, 2009
Cyber Crime Investigation Cell guys are extremely funny. I had a friend who was harassed by email on her gmail account. I suggested reporting this to the cyber cell. These guys responded, saying that it is difficult to trace gmail emails because they don't contain header information. This was such a stupid reason. Ofcourse gmail has header information. They just had to use their brains!
Ameya @ Jul 07, 2009
the practical application and desired operational efficiency of cyber crime prevention unit is far lagging behind present requirements.india needs more time to cope up with the international standards.govt support and peoples contribution both needs to be put in...
regards
nitesh @ Jul 06, 2009
The unasked question is do they have a budget allocated for the "constant upgrades" required to keep up with cyber crimes. Do they have the latest tools? Any tools?
Chocolate @ Jul 05, 2009
is the dept really gonna work?
Or just waste of money? Only time will tell...
Anyways in Rajesh's case there is nothing complicated to solve..
Shaheen @ Jul 04, 2009
Just try sending a mail to the cyber crime department of Karnataka. U will be shocked to know that you will never get a response to it. Infact we have to find our own ways to crack down cyber crimes.
Vinith @ Jul 03, 2009
lol u people keep quiet.u people dont know anythin about computers.u all are as useless as a board.hahaha.pretending.
Danish @ Jul 03, 2009
@Ragav in case you're not aware, Network 18 has acquired Infomedia, the publishers of Chip. The authors of this Article, Francis & Dushyant are writers for Chip Mag
Sathya @ Jul 03, 2009
Cool stuff! Is this an article borrowed form the CHIP magazine?? "CHIP met with Addl. Commissioner of Police Mr Deven Bharti..." Any who, good read. Nice to see that this stuff's being taken seriously.
Ragav @ Jul 03, 2009
same.. whats funny?? you will understand once u becomes a victm!.. thanks tech2..
Vishnu S @ Jul 03, 2009
vert nice article , what is funny abt it , plz let me know
zippo @ Jul 03, 2009
very funny!
Raghu @ Jul 03, 2009
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