Kerala - Kochi   

State IT Mission introduces software to fight cyber crime

K.P.M. Basheer

NET-SAVVY: Kerala has one of the largest pools of e-literate people in the country.

KOCHI: A credit-card holder in Kochi gets an e-mail message flagged `urgent' from the card-issuing bank: "In the past 24 hours, we have foiled seven attempts at misusing your credit card account. We need to take urgent steps to protect your interests. As a first step, we have deactivated your card. To help us fully secure your account, please fill out the attached form and e-mail it to us."

The form, among other things, asks to fill out the space for the card number and the PIN. For a realty check, the cardholder rushes to his bank's ATM, but finds that the card account was not deactivated. Suspicious, he calls up the bank and learns that no such e-mail was sent out by the bank. He realises that he has just been saved from an identity theft. Had he filled out the form and unwittingly revealed his PIN, he would have become yet another victim of cyber crime.

In Kerala, which has one of the largest pools of e-literate people in the country, people are slowly waking up to the reality of cyber crimes. Of course, there are people who still fall for those jackpot offers or invitations to join million-dollar business ventures floated on the net by Nigerians and South Africans.

Fortunately, as the cyber crimes grow, the number of tools to fight them — in the form of software — also grows. Unfortunately, most Internet users are unaware of the tools available to fight cyber crimes.

The State IT Mission will supply one such simple software, `Email Tracer,' free to the Akshaya e-learning centres soon. If you get, say, a threatening mail or an abusive message and you don't know who sent it to you, just paste the header of the message onto the e-mail tracer programme. In a moment, it will detect the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the computer from which the message was sent.

"We also plan to provide the Akshaya centres with software for filtering Internet contents, profiling the Net user and protecting children from accessing materials that are (morally) harmful to them," says Anvar Sadath, manager, e-governance, IT Mission.

He pointed out that since Akshaya centres are widely used, particularly in small towns and villages, they could act as hubs for preventing, fighting and reporting cyber crimes. (Some 3,000 more Akshaya centres are likely to be opened across the State in the coming months.)

All the district police headquarters will be given cyber crime analysis software like `Cybercheck,' which will be a great help in investigating such crimes.

At a later stage, when adequate number of policemen are trained in computer use, the software would be given to select police stations.

The mission, in partnership with the Resource Centre for Cyber Forensics of C-DAC, will launch a cyber crime portal in March to discuss how to fight Internet-related crimes and to provide information on handling and investigating them.

A toll-free cyber crime call centre will start functioning in March. Anyone can call the centre to report crimes or seek information.

All this would mean is, law is just a mouse-click away.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

State IT Mission introduces software to fight cyber crime
The facets of `God's own country'
Call for more aviation infrastructure
Chief Justice praises Kerala High Court
Reaching out to senior citizens
Coach bags prize at walkathon
Talks are on with managements: Baby
Reception given to Catholicos-designate
In Kochi Today

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu