'Future Wars Are Going To Be Fought In The Cyberspaces': Uttarakhand DGP, Ex-DRDO Scientist Release Book On Real-Life Cybercrime Investigations

The book, "Cyber Encounters" offers an account of how the police investigated and tackled instances of cybercrime.

“Cyber Encounters” book launch was organised by the IIT Delhi Alumni Association.

Source : ABP Live

Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar and former DRDO scientist OP Manocha launched their new book “Cyber Encounters” at IIT Delhi on Thursday. "Cyber Encounters" offers an account of real-life cybercrime stories and investigations conducted by police officers. The book gives an insight into the world of online criminals and the challenges faced by law enforcement agencies while tracking and catching them. 

The book launch, organised by the IIT Delhi Alumni Association, was marked by a discussion moderated by columnist and author Advaita Kala. Along with the authors, other notable guests included Lieutenant General Dr Rajesh Pant, National Cyber Security Coordinator, PMO; Aman Gupta, co-founder and CMO, Boat, and Vikram Singh, former Uttar Pradesh DGP Vikram Singh.

Speaking on online crime, Kumar said, "Future wars are going to be fought in the cyberspaces.” He added that cybercrime is the latest and the biggest challenge for police across the country. Kumar said, “The number of cybercrimes is mind-boggling. One can commit them sitting from anywhere in the world. The volume is so high.”

He further added that it is very difficult to catch criminals as technology is evolving on a daily basis. The advent of 5G will only make things even more challenging, he claimed. 

Manocha talked about "online sextortion" and how lonely men, irrespective of their age, are being extorted using morphed images and texts from bad actors. 

Gupta pointed out that there were nearly 10,000 replications of the Boat website, which were selling the company's products at one-fourth of the actual price. "We realised that these people (cyber criminals) were thinking way ahead of us," said Gupta. "My name was faked and used on Instagram to extort money from online users."

"People are losing money through cybercrime every day,” said Pant, further acknowledging that the telecom, financial, and judicial systems are vulnerable and that the cybercriminals are taking advantage of these vulnerabilities. “There will be a cybercrime department in every district as the government is working on it,” Pant assured.

He added that cybercriminals mostly take advantage of their victims' "human emotions" and said that any new technology that arrives should focus on security by design. 

“What worked yesterday will not work today when it comes to tackling cyber challenges,” said ex-DGP Singh.

Kumar concluded by saying that the best solution for cybercrime is awareness of the issue among the general public.