Date:18/11/2010 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2010/11/18/stories/2010111864480900.htm
National Software to prevent misuse of cybercafe for crime Y. Mallikarjun 15,000 cybercafes in country have installed the application Visitors will have to provide name, gender, age, address, photo HYDERABAD: What's common among 26/11, the Jaipur blasts and a threatening e-mail sent to Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa some months ago? In all three cases, mail was generated from cybercafes. In many such instances, the police might have ended up tracing the cafes rather than the criminals what with the cloak of anonymity they operate under. In a bid to prevent such anonymity, a Mumbai-based firm has developed software and is offering it free of cost to cybercafe owners and the police. Cybercafes, defined as intermediaries in the amended Information Technology Act, 2008, are being misused for terror crimes, fraudulent withdrawal of money and sending obscene mail, among others. This was mainly because the cafe owners failed to maintain proper user data, according to M. Krishnaswami, retail sales manager of the company. Following the mail to the Karnataka Chief Minister, the police traced the internet protocol address and the café, but could not find out further details, as the cafe owner did not maintain data, Mr. Krishnaswami said. Similarly, an e-mail sent to a Hindi television channel before the Mumbai terror attack was traced to a cafe in Rajkot. In a bid to help curb increasing cybercrime and supplement police efforts, Ideacts Innovations, a solutions provider, launched 'CLINCK Cyber Cafe Manager', which enables internet cafes to capture the relevant visitor data in a digital form. Once the software gets installed, the visitors would be required to register digitally, providing name, gender, age, address, photo, photo identification and contact number for accessing a terminal. All data gets encrypted and stored in the firm's CLINCK servers in Mumbai. Only law enforcement authorities can access it. Mr. Krishnaswami said, 15,000 cybercafes in different parts of the country have installed the application, including 1,400 in Hyderabad, 1,000 in Bangalore, 900 in Mumbai and 850 each in Chennai and Delhi. The company installed modules in the central crime station here and the zonal DCP's offices of the central and west zones to enable the police to quickly trace an IP address and the identity of the user in the event of a cybercrime. The software was installed in cybercafes in Vijayawada (190), Visakhapatnam (150), Nellore (85), Prodattur (70) and Kadapa (65). Praveen Kumar, Joint Commissioner City Police (Special Branch), said café owners could install the software voluntarily. E RENUKA, SECTION OFFICER, ICT CENTRE FOR VISUALLY CHALLENGED, CHMK LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT CALICUT, UNIVERSITY P O, MALAPPURAM DISTRICT, KERALA. To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
