Cybercrime displacing conventional crime, says ex-CBI director

Chennai:

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

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

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

“Each individual has a 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 CBI to tackle the cybercrime. “People like me have successfully handled cybercrimes. 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 Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS), he said it is 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 besides making biometric profile of convicts.

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

Speaking on the occasion, he said that there are 42 million cybercrimes occurring every year on a Pan-India basis and last year alone 52 per cent of such victims suffered attacks. These include malware, viruses, hacking, scans, fraud and theft.

The governor quoting Norton Symantec report said that on an average 80 people in India are victims of cyber crimes every minute.

He stated that Cyber Society of India has a greater role to play to create awareness on the nuances of cyber crimes and educating people on how to guard themselves from 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 the EVMs are fool-proof and rejected they were being tampered with on 2011 Lok Sabha elections. “I want to make it clear, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s election was fair,” he said.