Call to curb cyber crimes

VIJAYAWADA: Experts who participated in a national workshop on handling the Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) based cyber crimes, have strongly recommended to the government to make ethical hacking lawful through an appropriate provision in the law. The workshop organised by Truth Labs and Microsoft India has come up with some more deliberations which have underscored the urgency of the Union government’s intervention to curtail the VoIP-based cyber crimes. Speaking on the occasion, former director general of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D), N.R. Wasan,  felt that the sovereignty of the country is in thin air following the increase of rate in VoIP-based cyber crimes across the country.

Stating that not many such crimes have been reported in India, Mr Wasan observed that vast majority of such crimes reported in several countries across the globe are known to be originating from the cyber criminals operating from various nooks and corners of India. “These scammers usually make telephone calls on on VoIP, often posing as employees of MNCs or reputed IT companies and warn the individuals or organisations victims to be wary of viruses or malware infected to their computer systems,” explained Mr A.S. Rama Sastry, director of  Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), Hyderabad.

Ms Betsy Broder, Coun-sel for International Con-sumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission for the USA, has stated that VoIP-based frauds are becoming increasingly difficult to track and investigate because of their frequency, layers of anonymity and global footprints. While suggesting for identification of agencies for investigative coordination for formal exchange of information, Truth Labs chairman and adviser to the Government of AP and West Bengal, Dr Gandhi felt that there is a need to develop the information channels between the state and Central police agencies to curtail the VoIP-based crimes.

In his welcome address, city police commissioner Gautam Sawang has urged the academic and IT experts to exert more efforts to arrest the menace of VoIP-based frauds. “More research is needed,” the commissioner felt, and added that the department is also aiming at capacity-building amon-gst investigating officers.