State’s anti-terror squad has only one cyber-crime buster

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: When Maharashtra’s anti-terrorism squad (ATS) began probing the terror email sent by the Indian Mujahideen on Friday night, assistant police inspector Nasir Kulkarni settled down to a long innings. He is the only officer in the 450-strong ATS who knows a thing or two about cyber crime.

Tech-savvy Kulkarni (43) traced the internet protocol (IP) address of the mail to a Navi Mumbai flat and spent almost a day with experts from Nasscom, grappling with three computers for clues that could lead them to the sender.

Anti-terror experts are appalled at this state of affairs in today’s scenario where terrorists routinely use the internet to communicate. “We should invest more in training officers to detect cyber crime,’’ admits a senior intelligence officer.

Kulkarni is the only officer in the five-year-old ATS who everyone turns to when they come across terms like cryptography, encryption, steganography or voice-overinternet protocol. He learnt computers on his own and refined his skills during his three-year stint in the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police. But Kulkarni too had a tough time tracing a prank email sent by a Bhopal teenager posing as a member of the Lashkar-e-Qahar after the 7/11 train blasts in Mumbai.

Computer expert Vijay Mukhi said the police force has no choice but to train its personnel since cyber crime is changing. “Training should be a continuous process and you have to keep upgrading yourself,’’ he noted. Terrorists now use computers in most of their acts. “According to research conducted by the US government, it’s criminals and terrorists who first use technology to commit a crime,’’ Mukhi added. “The police must follow the same technology to nab them. Terrorists are more tech-savvy than computer professionals.’’

A senior police official said although there were a dozen people working with the ATS who could be trained, they had been assigned the job of data collection and analysis. These tasks mainly comprise coordination with other agencies, gathering details of terror-related cases and suchlike to build a databank.

However, when it comes to cracking cases, the ATS has to take the help of professionals. “Although several lectures on cyber crime have been organised for ATS officers, there is hardly any training given except for a basic computer course,’’ said an Intelligence Bureau official.

The Times of India, July 29, 2008