2007 will be Cyber Safety Year: A N Roy

Police Commissioner says awareness programmes, enforcing cyber laws to be
given priority
Prawesh Lama

Mumbai, January 1: In the wake of increasing cases of cyber crimes in the
city, Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy announced on Friday that instead of
the Cyber Safety Week which was being observed by the force for the last
three years, the police will observe 2007 as the 'Cyber Safety Year'.
According to the programme, the force will seek to create awareness among
residents, enforce cyber laws and solve computer-generated crimes,
independantly, without the help of the Cyber Cell.

The first phase of the programme will begin with police officers visiting
housing societies and speaking to residents who use credit cards for online
transactions and educate them about the kinds of possible misuse of their
cards. Such discussions will be followed by specific awareness programmes
through the year, across the city.

Among other methods, short films will be aired on television channels and in
cinema halls about dos and don'ts of the cyber world, to create awareness
among citizens. A similar presentation was shown to residents of Godrej Park
at Napeansea Road on December 30.

Among other announcements, Roy added that there will be also be special
training programmes for all police officers and the required infrastructure
for solving cyber crimes will be installed across all police stations so
that the force can work independently of the Cyber Cell in Mumbai.

"An e-learning programme will be organised in police stations across the
city. Everyone will attend the programme in shifts. Currently we are
speaking to N M Institute of Management about a three-month certificate
course in cyber crimes for policemen. It will be a short two-hour course
everyday. We don't want to make it difficult for officers to attend classes
and deal with their jobs simultaneously," said Roy. He added, "We are also
going to start e-Panchayat, which will be a forum for people who have been
victims of cyber crimes. As online trading and financial transactions are
becoming common today, many people are also getting cheated. We will get
technological experts to deal with the different kinds of problems that
people are facing. Victims of fraud in the banking sector, airlines and
hotel industries will be helped by the experts," he said.

"As cyber crimes are rising everyday, our main objective this year is to
alert citizens about the frauds in the cyber world and to enable all police
stations in the city to solve cyber crimes without depending on the Cyber
Cell," he concluded.

Publication: IE; Section: News; Pg:5; Date: 2/1/07

URL : http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=215660