Journalist and Police should join hands to create cyber awareness: Sachin Patil

@UtkarshaMuley

Nashik: “A journalist has to create awareness among digital immigrants and digital natives against cybercrimes,” remarked Superintendent of Police (SP) Sachin Patil.

He said this while speaking on Cyber Security at a program held to mark Marathi Journalist Day program organised by Namdar School of Communication and Journalism, of HPT Arts and RYK Science College in Nashik on Thursday.

Patil said that as use of digital platforms for all purposes has increased so has the rate of cybercrimes. The most efficient way to reduce these crimes is by making people conscious of the threat. Creating awareness is more important rather than policing cyberspace.

He further said, “People’s opinions can be considered and make them more alert while using digital platforms. This combines the work of both journalists and the cyber cell of police.”

The Covid-19 pandemic increased the speed of digitalization and increased digital immigrants. Many of the activities got shifted to the online platform as the lockdown was imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19 virus.

Also Read: Covid-19 pandemic relief measures hampering development works in Nashik

He said, “In this age of Information Technology (IT) where using digital platforms, the internet has become the need of the hour. Mobile has become the most important part of each individual’s life. In cinemas of old times there use to be characters like a magician whose life would be in his parrot, now it’s the same case, but that parrot has been replaced by a mobile.”

Patil noted that such increased dependency on the internet has led to an increase in cybercrimes. He further said that the registration of cybercrimes is more in urban areas than in rural areas because of the levels of internet penetration.

He further explained how cybercriminals study the mood of society and the psychology of their victims and use two techniques either greed or threat to lure their victims into the trap.

He gave the example of how Covid-19 inoculation was used to commit cyber frauds. “When Covid-19 vaccination started last year there were numerous such cases where people received emails claiming that they need to share their details on email to receive the vaccine”, he added.

The Internet is used for many things like social networking, finding information about people, etc.  There are two sides of the internet, one that is the real web and the other is the dark or deep web.

“The real web is the one which we use to get information like various search engines. It takes only seven to ten percent of the total internet. The remaining is the deep dark web. It’s like the underworld of the internet which is used by cybercriminals”, said Patil.

He also explained what the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Analysis are, and how the personal information which is collected when we use any application or website on the internet is stored and an algorithm is generated, and how cybercriminals can get hold of all these details.

Social media is one of the prominent tools used for cybercrimes wherein fake profiles are created. He said, “There are many cases where in the course of our investigations we find out that criminals get the data by stalking the social media accounts of people. People share every single detail on social media without applying any filter as to who would have access to their information.”

Patil suggested a way to reduce cyber crimes committed using fake profiles. He said that there is a way to stop such misuse of social networking sites by doing KYC that is Know Your Customer (KYC). When the person opens his or her account on any social media platform there needs to be a KYC performed to make sure it’s not a fake account. KYC is a method used while buying a new sim card or mobile connection or opening of an account in the bank. It is done to make sure that the person whose name is the one who will use it.