WEB POLICE: A Hot Career Option

Every day, four attempts are made by hackers to enter protected sites, with

10% of such attempts being successful. With the Net-terrorism graph on a spiral,

the demand for the ‘web police’ or ‘cybercop’ is fast increasing. Ask

Satish Bhide, web police officer with the CBI and trainer at the Net Infosys

Academy in Pune, which trains aspiring web police officers, and he says he loves

his job, and gets a kick out of snaring hackers.

"The job of a web policeman is to track hackers, safeguard sites, block

virus attacks and safeguard records. The task also involves tracking the hackers’

whereabouts and leading the authorities to them," Bhide says. A

year-and-a-half-old concept in India, web policing is fast becoming a rage with

youngsters because of the challenges, career prospects and the monetary gains.

"A web-policeman receives red carpet treatment. With Net terrorism

spreading, web policemen are much in demand."

The five-month web policing program is offered by only two institutes in

India, one in Pune and the other in Delhi, both affiliated to the US-based

Internet Law Enforcement Training Academy. After completion of training, exams

are conducted by the web police training program.

Elaborating on the concept, Bhide says, "The international organization

was constituted in the US on the lines of Interpol to combat web and

Internet-related crime. The organization was named Unigov, formed by a

consortium of 35 countries. India became a signatory to this treaty in February

2000. Misuse of the Internet started four years ago across the world, though in

India it made a late entry in the beginning of 1999. The hacking of sites

started after the e-commerce concept was introduced and hackers tried to meddle

with online transactions."

Commenting on the availability of the web police in India, he admits that the

strength of the force is really poor. To combat hackers, it is necessary that

there be four trained professionals or web policemen for every business hub. At

the moment, however, the headcount is only nearing two, which translates into

inadequate policing of such crimes.

Rashida Bakait



Cyber News Service, Mumbai