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Govt to add teeth to cyber crime watch

By SANJOY RAY

GUWAHATI, July 18 - Alarmed at the threat posed by unlawful use of cyber space, Dispur has decided to give a facelift to the existing cyber crime watch in the State.

And as part of the exercise, the Home Department is going to give a go-ahead to the long-pending proposals of eight full-fledged cyber crime police stations in the State.

The proposal sought cyber police stations in each police range, besides one in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Assam Police.

Besides, a special pool of cyber cops will also be developed in the State, which will monitor the threats emerging from within and outside the country.

At the moment, even the Regional Forensic Science Laboratory in Guwahati does not have a cyber expert, as a result of which the cases are piling on at a fast pace.

Promising a turnaround, a source at Dispur said, �In order to add to the effectiveness of the cyber crime investigations, the Assam Police will also be armed with equal number cyber crime laboratories, which will be attached with the respective cyber police stations.�

Sources said the modern-day threats are global in nature and cyber crime preparedness is of utmost importance for law-enforcing agencies across the world, which is why the new government has decided to raise the standard of its cyber space vigil.

�Be it the ISIS or any radical elements or home-grown insurgent groups, use of cyber space is very high. Under the present circumstances, cyber vigil cannot be undermined at any cost,� sources pointed out.

�There are also proposals to add more and more sophisticated crime detection gadgets,� sources told this reporter, adding that since 2013 nearly 950 cases of cyber crimes were registered under the Information Technology Act.

Not only that, even cases related to hacking of government and non-government websites by various hacking groups based in Pakistan, too, have been reported in the last couple of years.

�Almost all the major cities and towns in India have cyber police stations. However, in Assam, although the CID is mandated to investigate such cases, the rising number of such crimes has virtually made it difficult for the cyber sleuths to effectively deal with the cases. Moreover, the local police stations, too, lack expertise to deal with such cases, especially those with inter-State and international ramifications,� a senior Assam Police official opined.

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