Mumbai cops to invade cyberspace
K YATISH RAJAWAT AND RITWIK DONDE in Ecomomic Times report
MUMBAI: This time round, they dont want to be left limping in the chase. The 7/11 blasts have spooked the Mumbai police into tightening the noose around cyber crime. With terrorists using internet-based communication to manage their sleeper cells and plan operations, the Mumbai police wants to monitor the citys cyber cafes.
The police wants to licence all internet cafes in the city, classifying them under the public amusement category. Each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.
The state government has published a notification to seek public feedback on the proposed rules, which give the police the discretion to reject a licence. According to the draft rules, a no objection submission from the landlord/society where the cyber cafes conduct their business, along with NOCs from the civic bodys health and other departments, will also be needed.
The rules do not, however, cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls and email communications. The rules seek to identify internet cafes on the basis of whether online gaming is being carried out there.
The city police has wanted to regulate internet cafés for the past three years but the urgency appears to have increased after the investigations in the 7/11 blasts. A top Mumbai police official told ET that anti-nationals are increasingly becoming tech-savvy and hence, the need to police such places. The police had also planned to impose a 11 pm deadline on cyber cafes, he added.
The move is to get these commercial outlets to be more responsible… The gazette has sought public opinion and if people feel there is a need to address certain points, theyre welcome, he said.
Intelligence agencies in the US and the UK track Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications like emails and VOIP calls using technology tools. Unlike voice calls which can be tapped easily, IP communication is difficult to tap as the end-user device changes. Users can communicate from different computers, change email IDs, or communicate even through postings on blogs or websites.
Cyber cafes, though, are just one access point for terrorists. GPRS-enabled mobile phones, and access to the net through other personal computing devices are equally common.
Cyber cafe owners, on their part, feel the fees are too high, and bad for business.
On whether cyber cafes are often portrayed as shady joints, Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Providers, which has internet cafe owners as members says, We are service providers and shouldnt be penalised for users actions. Cyber cafes are not public entertainment places. This fee would mean that half of the monthly earnings of an internet cafe owner would go towards acquiring the licence, and will effectively render small and medium-sized internet cafes unviable, he adds.
Earlier, the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police had initiated a move under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which made cyber cafe users show documents such as college or school IDs or driving licences as proof of identity and had the cyber cafes maintain a log book for users.
The Tamil Nadu police has also insisted on registration of all internet cafes in Chennai. This was done in an attempt to monitor Tamil militants using these cafes for communication. The registration fee, though, is Rs 75 per terminal.