Kerala police to form a team of ethical hackers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala police have  decided to form a team of ethical hackers as part of enhancing their capabilities in combating cyber crimes.  The 300-member ethical hacker unit, which  will prevent and detect cyber crimes,   would be the first of its kind in a police force in the country, police sources said. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched the project, titled ‘Khaki Hats’ along with the smart cards for police personnel and close user group mobile connection to the entire police force here on Monday.

Deccan Chronicle had reported on Friday about  hackers defacing 59 Facebook pages dealing with sex rackets, child-porn and revenge-porn. The hackers had revealed that there are 10,000-odd Facebook pages active in Malayalam language alone. The police had expressed their helplessness in tracking the abusers. Some hackers even posted the photographs of persons spreading nude photos of their former girlfriends. Under the ‘Khaki Hat’ programme, about 300 selected police officials would be given special training as certified ethical hackers.  The programme would be carried with the support of EU Council.

The clone-free hi-tech smart card project has been launched with support of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing. All police personnel will be provided with chip-enabled cards which could not be cloned. The cards would contain individual information regarding police personnel for administrative purposes. The chief minister also launched a total closed user group mobile connectivity to the  police force. The project titled Samhitha has been launched with support of BSNL. State police chief Loknath Behera, additional chief secretary (home) Nalini Netto and other senior police officers were present at the launch ceremony.