THRISSUR: In a bid to create a firewall against the mounting cyber crimes in the state, Kerala police have set up cyber patrolling.
“It is similar to police patrolling conducted to prevent crimes in the physical world,”
said Manoj Abraham, Nodal officer of Cyberdome, cyber security centre of the Kerala Police. “Usually, the police launch a probe into a cyber crime after receiving a complaint and registering a case. Now, with cyber patrolling, we can preempt and prevent virtual crimes,” he said.
Cyber patrolling was kickstarted three weeks ago. “Staff and volunteers working at the Cyberdome will monitor the Internet in real time and if anything suspicious is detected, they will initiate steps to tackle it” Manoj Abraham added. The team at Cyberdome will proactively scan and track the large volume of content on all social networking sites. As police needed to work in tandem with multiple agencies to prevent cyber crimes, Cyberdome was started in 2015 as a public-private partnership.
The Cyberdome has roped in technical experts, ethical hackers and cyber professionals who can assist the police to ensure cyber security and conduct investigation as volunteers. These volunteers help in ensure efficacy in cyber patrolling. As Cyberdome is a contributory project, these volunteers are not entitled to any payments whatsoever, now or in the future. Hence, persons with a sense of social responsibility have rendered their service as volunteers, they are already employed and well settled.