KTR plans assault on cyber crimes

IT Minister KT Rama Rao on Friday asked the industry to collaborate with the government to combat cyber crimes while stressing the need to have a dedicated workforce to defeat the hackers.

"We want the industry to partner with us and collaborate with us to counter cyber crimes and cyber terrorism," KTR said addressing a conference on cyber security organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Quoting the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, he said cyber crimes were on a continuous rise. "We have to be vigilant so that such crimes come down drastically," he said.

Quoting another report, KTR said India was in the second position in the list of countries with maximum cyber attacks on mobile devices. "We (India) are the third largest economy. A sophisticated cyber assault had cost Indian individuals and companies USD 4 billion losses by July 2013," he said.

"We have to be very vigilant to ensure that our cyber security measures are of high standards to defeat the hackers across the world who target us," the minister said.

“India has 22,000 certified cyber security professionals which is very less compared to the requirement of 77,000, according to analysts and studies,” Rao said pointing out that China, the second largest economy in the world, has 25 million cyber warriors.

"In order to prevent future cyber attacks, companies and individuals must adopt suitable cyber security measures as cyber-crimes challenges cannot be tackled with normal security products and we need dedicated cyber security workforce," he said.

Additional Director General of Police of Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Telangana T Krishna Prasad said plans were afoot to set up 'Cyber Labs' in all districts of the state on the lines of 'Cyber Lab' existing in CID.

“The Cyber Lab at CID has been imparting required training and technical skills of investigation of cyber offences to inspectors and DSP level officers dealing with such cases,” Krishna Prasad said.

"Establishment of cyber labs in districts will help police officers getting necessary training in districts itself to deal with cyber-crime related offences," he said.

The CID top cop further urged the IT industry to share its tools and methodologies with the investigating agencies free of cost to tackle the menace of cyber crimes.

“The need of the hour was also to create awareness and for taking preventive steps. Punitive action is needed against violators. More issues need to be discussed and the Telangana government should address to the Centre towards a policy that would put in place enhanced security measures in cyber space," Prasad said.

"There should be collaboration between government, industry and other stakeholders to tackle this gigantic cyber crime menace," the senior police officer added.