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