Assam CID gears up to combat cybercrimes

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Amid the sharp rise in the number of cybercrimes in the state, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) of the Assam Police has adopted several ways to ensure quick and timely reporting of such crimes. Since cybercrime is a criminal activity that involves a computer, a networked device or a network, its timely reporting is important to ensure that all potential digital evidence is properly preserved for investigation.

CID sources said that among the most commonly reported cybercrimes from the state were online impersonation, online financial frauds, OLX frauds, hacking and phishing. An online impersonation is a criminal act of using another person's name, domain address, phone number or any other identifying information without the consent for the purpose of making a recipient believe that a message is truly coming from the impersonated individual. Similarly, online financial fraud or internet banking fraud is a fraud or theft committed using online technology to illegally remove money from a bank account or transfer money to an account in a different bank. Internet banking fraud is also a form of identity theft and is usually made possible through techniques such as phishing. On the other hand, hacking is a systematic process used to identify vulnerabilities in a system and access nearly all the administrative controls in the system.

The investigative agency added that it has several helplines for citizens to tackle cybercrimes and general crimes. Among them is the citizen portal - assampolice.assam.gov.in - under the CCTNS project for reporting any kind of complaints by the public and providing citizen-centric services by the Assam Police. Similarly, there is the national portal - cybercrime.gov.in - for reporting cybercrime complaints. Moreover, a toll-free number (155260) has been released by the department which can be used between 9 am and 6 pm for offering guidance to citizens in cybercrime-related issues. Similarly, there is a social media page of CID on Facebook and Twitter for creating awareness on various fields related to policing, sharing of good works done by the department as well as reporting of unlawful activities by the public.

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