Special IT cadre to tackle rising cyber crime cases on the anvil

HYDERABAD: To deal effectively with increasing cyber crimes in Telangana, especially in Greater Hyderabad, police are planning to constitute a special information technology (SIT) cadre comprising recruits with engineering, science and technology degrees.
The CID’s cyber crime cell recorded a massive 202% jump in cyber crime cases in 2014 compared to the year before.While the total number of cyber crime cases recorded in 2014 is 675, the figure stood at 334 in 2013.
Similarly, Hyderabad police recorded a rise of 136% (655 cases in 2014 and 479 in 2013), while its Cyberabad counterpart logged a 234% increase (256 cases in 2014 and 109 in 2013).
As of now, the staff working in law and order and cyber crime police stations, where cases under the IT Act are booked for various offences involving electronic data, are recruits trained at the Police Academy in Hyderabad or police training colleges spread across the state.
In the past few years, through curriculum changes, cyber crime investigation has been included in training modules at the Police Academy and police training colleges. The CID also imparts special training to cops on the subject.
Despite the changes, top police officials feel that cyber crime investigation in the state needs improvement. “Majority of the personnel handling cyber crimes in the state have not studied computer science during their graduation or post graduation. Though they are still doing their best, we believe that recruitment of B Tech graduates and post graduates with M Sc, M Tech or MCA degrees will immensely improve investigation standards and result in effective crime prevention,” Telangana director general of police (DGP) Anurag Sharma told TOI.
With technology playing a signification role in our day-to-day affairs, electronic data analysis like cellphone data analysis has become a part of even the traditional crime investigation process. Majority of the property offences or even some hit-and-run cases and other ‘bodily’ offences are solved using cellphone data analysis.
Surveillance and analysis of social media and cellphone data has become an integral part of prevention and investigation of terror and communal cases.
In view of the recent communal violence and apprehension of several youngsters keen on joining ISIS, Cyberabad police have procured ‘cyber sniffing’ tools. Moreover, policing database and operations are becoming computerised with the launch of Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) and modern tools like intelligent traffic management and crime prevention.
“We are planning to create an IT cadre with recruitments at sub-inspector (SI) and above levels. A proposal to this effect will be sent to the government soon,” the DGP said.