Expert sounds alarm bells over cyber crimes
Acclaimed cybersecurity expert Rakshit Tandon on Saturday addressed the gathering of school and college students and young engineers during a seminar on “How Safe Are You?” at Ghulam Ahmed hall in Sultan Ul Uloom Education Society here.
Hyderabad: Acclaimed cybersecurity expert Rakshit Tandon on Saturday addressed the gathering of school and college students and young engineers during a seminar on “How Safe Are You?” at Ghulam Ahmed hall in Sultan Ul Uloom Education Society here.
Citing statistics of National Crime Record Bureau of India, he said, “5,102 were arrested in 2015 of which nearly 3,200 were college students and 98 were school students.” Rakshit warned students against being lured into cyber terrorism by strangers referring to internet as an open space which is being used for terrorism. He referred to 3,77,000 suspicious accounts that were closed by Twitter in 2016.
Rakshit, who is on the Advisory Board of MHA for the Committee of Child Protection in Digital Age, said, “Although India has many laws to tackle cybercrimes, most crimes are committed in the first place as youngsters fall prey to strangers’ deceptive moves on popular social media platforms. While these platforms can be constructively used in countless ways, one must refrain from venturing into their dark side”.
He urged youngsters to refrain from using public computer systems or public Wi-Fi networks, particularly for sharing private data and personal information. Rakshit urged girls to keep their social media accounts private and use two-factor authentication for logging in to the accounts. Two factor authentication allows greater security by using a One Time Password (OTP) in combination with login credentials for more security. He stressed upon boys to respect girls on social media and their cyber privacy.
He advised girls to be cautious while using platforms like Snapchat and WhatsApp as certain features like Screen capture can help their private data escape publicly. Even deleted pictures and data posted online have a traceable footprint, he warned. He said Section 67 which allows for punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form, Section 66C which recognises hacking as a punishable crime and Section 67A which calls for a non-bailable jail for five years and up to Rs 10 lakh in fine for sexually explicit content.
