The Union Minister of State for Home Affairs recently inaugurated the 4th National Youth Superintendents of Police Conference and Police Expo. This event is in the limelight because it emphasizes the latest technologies in various areas to enable more effective delivery of police services to citizens. Included among these are body armour, mine protective vehicles (MPVs), less-than-lethal technologies, advanced weaponry, latest communication equipment, surveillance equipment, coastal security, drone, anti-drone technologies, cybersecurity/cybercrime management, and big data & predictive analytics.
Focusing On Innovation and Research in Cybercrime Management, Drones and Counter Drones
The conference’s theme concentrated on innovation and research in cybercrime management, drones, and counter-drones. The discussions revolved around the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C) endorsed in 2018 to address the surge in cybercrimes. This center has seven components, a significant one being located at the National Cyber Research and Innovation Center (Bureau of Police Research and Development) in New Delhi.
Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and System (CCTNS)
The CCTNS plan scheme was conceived based on the experiences from a non-plan scheme – Common Integrated Police Application (CIPA). It aims to make police functioning more citizen-friendly, transparent, improve citizen-centric services through effective ICT usage, provide investigating officers with tools, technology, and information to facilitate crime investigation and detection. It has been implemented across all 16,347 police stations in the country.
The Versatile Usage of Drones
Drones have extensive utilization possibilities in combat operations, surveillance, communication in remote areas for internal security, border security, and remote area security. They can also be used for transportation of essentials, search and rescue operations in disaster-stricken areas, digital mapping of property, generating employment through setting up soil testing laboratories in villages, helping farmers and fishermen in timely delivery of their produce with minimum damage, and easy spraying of pesticides on crops.
India’s Initiatives for Cyber Crime & Drones
Several initiatives have been undertaken by India to combat cybercrime and leverage drone technology. These include the Bharat Drone Mahotsav, Drone Rules 2021, Drone Shakti Scheme, Indian National Security Council, Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), Cyber Swachhta Kendra, Cyber Surakshit Bharat.
UPSC Civil Services Examination’s Previous Year Questions (PYQs)
Interesting discussions revolved around the potential capabilities of drones as per existing technology levels. It was agreed that drones could successfully carry out activities like spraying pesticides on crop fields, inspecting active volcanoes’ craters, and collecting breath samples from spouting whales for DNA analysis.
In the context of cyber insurance for individuals, the benefits generally covered were discussed. Coverage includes response to breach events, investigation & fines, expenses such as forensic, IT audit, crisis management, legal costs, privacy & data liability, loss of personal identifiable information, loss of corporate confidential info, network liability, multimedia covers including copyright issues, business interpretation, income loss, business interruption cost, system damage, restoration cost, cyber theft, fund transfer frauds, e-theft loss, e-communication loss, cyber extortion.
Another topic of discussion was about malicious software or malware like WannaCry, Petya, and EternalBlue that take over computers and threaten users by denying data access. The attacker demands a ransom, promising to restore data access upon payment. These ransomware created havoc by demanding the victim’s ransom payment in Bitcoin (cryptocurrency). Cryptocurrency is a digital currency using encryption techniques to regulate currency units’ generation and verify fund transfers, operating independently of a central bank.