Andhra Pradesh   

Cyber criminals elusive

Cyber Crime sleuths of Hyderabad thought they almost caught the person responsible for hosting websites with offensive content about film stars N. Balakrishna and Chiranjeevi after tracing his e-mail id to Australia.

As time passed by, they realised that it would take months to collect details of the accused, let alone arrest him. The ‘hate' websites were hosted through the server of Go Daddy -an Internet domain registrar and website hosting company. Investigators mailed a letter to the company explaining background of the case and sought details of the person who approached it to host the website.

Interestingly, the Go Daddy told police that it cannot provide required information without a subpoena order from a court of Arizona where the company office is located. That meant an impasse in the investigation. The only other option for the police now is to contact the company through INTERPOL, but it will a take long time to complete the complex procedures. This is not the first cyber crime in which reluctance of companies to part with information affected the probe. Even the Dreamhost and Google companies, the Hyderabad police maintained, refused to furnish details in a couple of cases without a local court order. Many newly released Telugu and Hindi movies are uploaded online through servers abroad, causing innumerable loss to the film industry.

Similarly, several websites indulging in malicious campaigns and false information triggering law and order disturbances are being put on Internet through foreign servers. The services of INTERPOL can be utilised, but the requests for details have to be sent through a lengthy official channel. Unless the government takes up the matter with the foreign companies at higher level, the video piracy and websites with objectionable content will continue to thrive.

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