HYDERABAD: When the twin bomb blasts rocked Dilsukhnagar here on February 21, 2013, the city police took the help of three tech- savvy persons to help in investigation, specifically to monitor telephone calls and emails in order to get some clues.
“But they did not have the expertise and tried to play around with us. We need to have trustworthy people for investigation,” director-general of police Anurag Sharma said at the third Hyderabad Security Conference (HSC) 2015 at HICC in Madhapur here on Friday.
“When the blast took place, we decided to monitor all the telephone calls and mails for some clue. As we had limited knowledge of the field, we took help from outside. Three guys volunteered to help us but couldn’t do much. But when they realised that the whole department’s attention was riveted on them, they started misguiding us saying that the terrorists were still in Hyderabad and were planning another blast.
“I immediately forwarded the information to the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO) in Delhi, and they immediately realised that those guys were taking us for a ride.”
To investigate cyber crimes quickly, the police department needed help from private agencies which are trustworthy. And, there is need to create a separate cadre for the cyber cell, Sharma said.
Cyberabad police commissioner CV Anand said police department needed a big shake-up. “We need to develop systems where private expertise is allowed in our department so that we can solve cases quickly,” he said.
“Cyber safety for young people needs special focus. Recently, we have come across a case where a guy hacked 200 Facebook accounts of girls and started harassing them,” Anand added.
Data Security Council of India CEO Nandkumar Saravade said, “Given the backdrop of ‘Digital India’ with its focus on empowerment, development, growth and governance, the third Hyderabad Security Conference-2015 helped businesses realise the need for a focused, strategic and structured approach to security challenges to generate a reassuring vision for the future.”
TCS principal consultant Sitaram Chamarthy said Internet of Things (IoT) was going to affect everyone’s life and the privacy of an individual can be completely compromised with it.
Speaking on ‘Securing the technology convergence-are we prepared?’, he said “Take an example of particular brand of smart TV, which has 43 pages of licence agreement. Somewhere in the middle is it mentioned that the TV will record everything and has the right to reveal it to a third party. It is a fact that no one has the time to read through 43 pages and has no clue that his or her privacy is intruded. The same with smart fridges. It is very easy to obtain one’s mail password from it.
“If we want to connect everything with other devices, then the chances of hacking are more. The day is not far off when hacking is used as service. It can be used for killing a person or to make sure that someone attends a meeting late.”
Deputy director of National Police Academy Harikishore Kusumakar said all government departments should have a separate information officer to take care of the data generated.