Shillong, July 16: Considering the increase of Cyber crime across the north east, stringent measures should be put in place to deal with crimes committed through the internet.
This was informed by Subimal Bhattacharjee, a Country Head at the General Dynamics International Corporation – India liaison office delivered his speech to the students at a workshop on cyber security in the context of North East organised by the Media Club in collaboration with IQAC of St Anthony’s College here on Tuesday.
He also informed that the government of India has some grants relating to cyber security for the region by funding organizations and groups to conduct a research on cyber security in the region considering the fact that the region is vulnerable to cyber attacks from neighbouring countries.
Bhattacharjee also said that since most parts of the North Eastern shares its boundary with international borders, the influx of ideas is very dangerous. “At least there are ways to tackle influx of people but it is very difficult to keep track of influx of ideas,” he added.
“There are various provisions and sections of the Information and Technology (IT) Act that applies to various cyber attacks,” he said that the act which was passed in 2000 was initially passed to enable e-commerce and e-governance but with the increasing trend of the cyber crimes in the country, the act was amended in 2008.
As far as cyber growth in North East is concerned, Bhattacharjee informed that the growth of cyber activities in the north east is much faster than other parts of the country. “People should be made aware that freedom of speech in the internet is not absolute and individuals need to have a sense of responsibility and balance,” he added.
“In north east, we are connected virtually but more focus should be laid on capacity-oriented services, faster connectivity and quality of services,” he said adding that people should be made aware of the various false advertisements or messages like lottery received by customers in their mobile phones or email ids.
Bhattacharjee also informed that the government has impressed on the need to impart education on cyber space to the school students from class VIII to familiarize them with the advantages and disadvantages of cyber activities.
Referring to the recent nation-wide cyber-related issue where there was a mass exodus of north eastern students from South India, Bhattacharjee said “We still have communal flare up on certain issues in India and the decision to restrict some aspect of freedom of speech in the internet is a mean to throttle that freedom but it is done in view of the security of the people.”
Stating that digital media is a boon not only to the people but the law and order enforcement agencies, the expert said that even security forces has shifted gear to cyber space to keep track of various militant outfits. “Cyber tools are even being used not only by the security forces but the terrorists also look at the application of cyber space more closely to execute their plan well,” he added.
However, while coming to the much talk on implementation of the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system in the state gained momentum, Subimal Bhattacharjee, a cyber wizard on the other hand has termed ILP as an ‘outdated mechanism’ to tackle influx stating that people should be allowed to move freely across the country provided an up-to-date mechanism is kept in place to check infiltration of illegal migrants.
Meanwhile, he said that the problem of influx can be tackled through various mechanisms provided the entry of genuine citizens of the country is not barred.(SP News)
