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Detecting crime @ the speed of light
WITH INCREASING EVIDENCE of the abuse of the Internet by terrorist organisations, the moves to create cyber cells at the State level mark the start of a demanding and sensitive task. Despite the ideal that technology is value-neutral, the possibilities of misuse accompany every advance. It is no surprise that terrorist organisations across the world have taken to cyberspace as their latest frontier. Checking crime implies that enforcement agencies are in sync with the means adopted by those who violate the law. However, state forces are found wanting in this critical area of matching technologies. An example that is not out of place even today is the baton-wielding police constable pitted against the machine gun-toting militant. Given the existing lags in modernisation of police forces, the challenge is not to just keep pace with the law-breakers, but to outsmart them on the technology front as well. For such an approach to be effective, a coming together of the enforcement agencies is vital. The efforts to create a National Cyberspace Cell are a timely response by the Union Government to the latest threat against national security.
The measures required to tackle the new challenges posed by cyber-savvy criminals and terrorists spread across a vast canvas. In fact, the range of potential abuses is so wide _ from the rather simple instances of spamming websites to the more complex transmission of coded messages over the Internet _ that equipping the state forces to counter these actions will be a monumental task. If seen against the rather low start that law enforcement personnel have, with many of them having to go through the basic steps of learning the fundamentals of a computer system, the enormity of the challenge sinks in. The lack of a working knowledge of the world of the web is, however, only a starting point for the correctives required. In the realm of law, the Information Technology Act remains a largely untested legislation. And, despite a national call, much remains to be done by State Governments to create expertise that can tackle electronic crimes. Even those States that have started moving towards addressing these issues will first have to move rapidly up the learning curve in an area that is fast changing. With the rapid advances in computer technology, this is bound to be an increasingly difficult challenge.
Given the pervasive nature of the Internet, the most difficult balance to strike will be in maintaining public security while ensuring that individual privacy is not invaded. As countries gear up to map a largely uncharted area of criminal and terrorist activity through the Internet, it is vital that the measures to deter the keyboard-criminal are not overdone, thereby impinging upon individual liberties. The use of computing techniques by terrorist groups to coordinate their acts, with encryption coming in as a handy aid to cover their tracks, may prompt law-enforcers to push the case for greater surveillance. It is important, however, to recognise that the Internet is, like any other medium of communication, value neutral. At a more fundamental level, as in the case of the larger computing world so in the case of the use of cyberspace by terrorists, there is a strong human base. It is imperative that security agencies see human intelligence as an important foundation that cannot be replaced by technical intelligence. Putting in place an effective and credible system that will deter the Internet-savvy terrorist calls for strengthening the basic apparatus and fine-tuning it with the technological advances.
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