INTERNET KI BULDING BY ANKIT FADIA [DO READ IT]

ORIGNALLY POSTED AT IBN LIVE BLOG BY ANKIT FADIA

Not too long ago, I was visiting Delhi. I was invited to speak at this conference which had a large number of officials from Delhi Police in the audience. Like always I started my talk by sharing examples of shocking cyber crimes that have taken place in different parts of the world. I followed that up with some LIVE hacking demonstrations. Fun stuff. Cool Stuff. Simple stuff. Then came the time for the Q&A session. And usually at these sarkari type conferences, nobody bothers to ask questions. Everybody is more interested in the food, collecting all printed material (testimony to the fact that they learnt a lot by attending this holiday...ummm...conference) and making sure the boss sees them scribbling down notes. Well, at least they pretend to write something down. Anyways, as soon as my presentation got over, one of the officials from Delhi Police at the back of the room immediately stood up to ask me a question. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised. But nothing could have prepared me for what came next. This official enthusiastically asked me: "All this is fine, but Mr. Ankit Yeh Internet Ki Building Kidhar Hain???" On hearing this rather unexpected question, a million things started going through my head. Did I hear this right? Did I mistakenly enter the wrong conference room in the hotel? Was he speaking some other language? Not knowing anything better to say I politely asked him to repeat the question: "Can you please speak into the microphone, I actually couldn't hear your question". Unaware of the gazillion questions & confusion in my head, he quickly repeated his question: "Yeh Internet Ki Building Kidhar Hain?" I was confused and at a loss for words. What followed was a collection of awkward pauses, clearing of throat and an answer that was nothing but a random string of stammers and stutters.

It's pathetic. So according to him the Internet is a huge building. And in order to protect it from cyber crime, the police have to stand all around the building with rifles and laathis in their hands fighting off the viruses, worms and criminals! And this same person is supposed to protect Indians and India from cyber criminals. Shocking. India is probably the IT capital of the world, however as far as computer security is concerned India is far lagging behind. If this is the pathetic state of affairs at the police department in the national capital of our country, then one can't even begin to imagine how things will be in other cities. What use are all the various cyber laws in India, if we don't even have an adequate number of trained police officials to implement these laws? How safe is the cyber life of an average Indian if the police itself are not properly trained to protect, safeguard and investigate if the need arises? No wonder India continues to remain so susceptible to cyber attacks. Mark my words all major acts of terror in India in the next few years will always have some sort of technology/internet element to them.

If anybody reading this blog still has any doubts regarding the preparedness (or the lack of) of the Indian Police Departments to tackle cyber crime, then I have a simple challenge for you. Try going to a local police station and try to report a cyber crime. I guarantee you that 90 times out of 100 the official taking down the complaint will have no clue what you are saying. Try it and tell us about your experiences!

(Ankit Fadia, 23 years old has written 16 bestselling books on computer hacking, delivered more than 1000 talks in 25 countries, received 45 awards, runs cyber security courses & provides consulting solutions to Fortune 500 companies and government agencies. He was recently voted one of the MTV Youth Icons 2008. For more information about him visit his website.)