By NNN-Bernama,
Hyderabad, India : To equip themselves to tackle the increasing cyber crime cases effectively, the state police department in south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has roped in Information Technology (IT) experts specialised in cyber cases, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
Inadequate IT knowledge and lack of expertise were major hurdles for the state police in probing new generation crimes, a top police official said.
“Cyber crime inquiry requires tracking the offender who sends a particular e-mail or fraudulent bank transaction over the Internet. If the investigator does not have the proper skill, he will find it difficult to track and nab the criminal,” Additional Superintendent of Police (Cyber Crime) U Rama Mohan told PTI here.
Crime scene preservation, search and seizure of electronic evidence require a different approach than that of conventional method, Mohan said.
The police have taken up various training programmes with the help of experts in IT law. However, there are practical problems in the enforcement of cyber law due to issues like jurisdiction, collection of evidence and inadequate knowledge about cyber laws, he said.
Besides training police personnel to deal with the new age crime, there was a need for orienting judicial magistracy and prosecutors appreciate the special conditions and technical aspects of evidence relating to cyber law, he said.
There is a need to be sensitised to appreciate the “electronic evidence” presented in the courts. Some legal officers may not have proper knowledge of computer jargons like IP address, full header, hacking or e-banking, he said.
Certain offences like phishing (a practice of using fraudulent e-mails and copies of legitimate websites to extract financial data from computer users for purposes of identity theft) and cyber stalking may appear relatively new to some investigators, who need to be trained to deal with such cases, the officer said.
On the issue of jurisdiction, Mohan said police operate within local boundaries, focusing on crime occurring within their area. “But the global nature of Internet and cyber space brings together the offenders, victims and targets, who were otherwise situated in different countries.”
Often the cyber offences span beyond national boundaries, making it difficult for investigators to collect evidence and apprehend the culprit, he said.
At present three cyber crime police stations are in operation in Andhra Pradesh, an IT hub with Hyderabad as the main centre. CID cyber crime station, set up in 2002, one in Hyderabad and another under jurisdiction of Cyberabad Commissionerate, were in operation since last year.
The CID cyber crime station has so far registered 169 cases under various Sections of Information Technology (IT) Act.