Cyber Crime Displacing Conventional Crime, Says Former CBI Director

Cybercrime is slowly displacing conventional crime and the Indian police in course of time will become equipped to handle such crimes, according to former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation R K Raghavan.

Speaking during a workshop on Cyber Crimes and e-security, organised by the Cyber Society of India here on Tuesday, Raghavan said that more people would become victims of cyber crime than of conventional crime.

On an average only two per cent of our population is affected by conventional crime like dacoity and theft but almost everyone who has access to the Internet is vulnerable to cyber crime.

“Each individual has the potential to become a victim with the spurt in smartphones,” he added.

However, Raghavan is against the creation of a dedicated police force on the lines of the CBI to tackle cyber crime. “People like me have successfully handled cyber crimes. The police personnel will be able to take care of cyber crime effectively within a decade,” he said.

Talking about the delay in implementation of the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), he said it was a matter of concern as the country does not have a single national database. CCTNS was to link 14,000 police stations across the country and make biometric profiles of convicts.

Earlier Governor K Rosaiah inaugurated the workshop, which marked the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Cyber Society of India.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that there were 42 million cyber crimes occurring on a pan-India basis every year and last year alone 52 per cent of such victims suffered attacks, including malware, viruses, hacking, scans, fraud and theft.

The Governor said that on an average 80 people in India are victims of cyber crimes every minute.

He stated that the Cyber Society of India had a greater role to play to create awareness on the nuances of cyber crime and to educate people on how to guard themselves against such criminals.

Speaking on the occasion N Vittal, former central vigilance commissioner, hailed the electronic voting machine and the person behind its development, Sujatha Rangarajan. He said EVMs were foolproof and rejected the claim that they were tampered with in the 2011 Lok Sabha elections. “I want to make it clear, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s election was fair,” he said.

Sourse: newindianexpress.com