Kerala is currently witnessing a rapid increase in the rate of cyber crimes. Each crime involves a technology aspect in terms of a gadget or tool that is highly sophisticated. With the Internet assuming a central role in the society, its weaknesses have also come to the fore. The worldwide interconnected digital information and communications infrastructure collectively known as cyber space which underpins almost every aspect of modern society and renders vital support for the economy, governance, civil infrastructure, public safety, and national security. Increasingly, now a days it is observed that cyber criminals are frequently exploiting network vulnerabilities, terrorists are using the Internet for information exchange and communication. Online sexual violence and child sex abuse imagery, online frauds, terrorist activities, data loss and data breaches and identity theft as well as defacement are also common. The dark nets and cyber warfare are emerging areas of cyber threat. Hence a threat in any form in this cyber space is always a matter of concern for a law enforcement agency.
Two major challenges to the law enforcement include jurisdiction issues and discovering the identity of a cyber criminal. Since the world is ever more dependent on the information and communications technology, the Kerala Police is supposed to deal with crimes unheard of a decade earlier. The issue of cyber security needs to move beyond traditional policing activities and requires a different outlook to deal with technology. To ensure effectiveness and coordinate response in tackling the emerging cyber security threats prevailing in the state, a technology centre is required to foster the capabilities and expertise of Kerala Police as well as to develop strategies to deal with this dynamic challenging environment of technology. Cyberdome is a visionary initiative of Kerala Police to fortify the cyber security of the state as well as to curtail the notoriously widespread cyber menaces from various criminal sources towards our cyber space.
We keep on building expertise in cyber security and transferring technologies, enforcing policies, offering services and building products to create a secure ecosystem for the technology tailored society
Cyberdome has a key role in providing insights for cyber intelligence by tracking and analyzing the activities of the cyber world. Social media analytics, anti-piracy measures on the internet, virtual policing, monitoring of online sex rackets, preventing child pornography, and countering cyber terror activities are the key focus areas.
Primary focus area of Cyberdome is cyber security as the protection of the departmental systems, networks and data in cyberspace. Cyberdome is to provide continuous attention that is required to protect sensitive government and personal digital assets to safeguard national security.
Cyberdome is engaged with incident response activities such as identifying the perpetrators of attack, assessment of damage and taking adequate steps to minimize the loss by using tools, techniques and resources at our disposal. Objective is to detect and react to the computer security incidents.
Cyberdome is a setup with a cyber forensic division to provide technical support for the investigation teams dealing with cyber crimes which involve scientific processes of identification, seizure, acquisition, authentication, analysis, documentation and preservation of digital evidence.
Cyberdome is aimes to play a major role in the area of cyber security as well as cyber threat resilience research by collaborating with academic partners. Technological advancement for Police, to increase the effectiveness of the policing, is another prime objective of the Centre.
Cyberdome holds the responsibility of imparting awareness to the police personnel in the latest developments and trends of the cyber world. Cyberdome is also designed to engage and educate the public through events and initiatives with the goal of raising awareness about Cyber security.
The dangers of cyber threats continue and pose significant challenges for a law enforcement agency not only in imparting the latest technologies for effectiveness of policing but also in deploying adequate manpower with sufficient skill sets to undertake the evolving dangers in the cyberspace. Since the highly sophisticated cyber threats continue to evolve and spike at a pervasive rate in Kerala, without expert collaboration and knowledge sharing, police lessen their ability to respond to cyber threats and may potentially expose themselves and their stakeholders to greater risks in cyber space, as perpetrators learn to exploit national, regional and global information and communication technology weaknesses one-by-one. Cybercrime is borderless by nature – this also creates difficulties in criminal investigation and makes it more complicated for law enforcement authorities to identify and secure the criminals. To effectively tackle cybercrime, adequate cross–border provisions are required and international cooperation and mutual assistance within law enforcement, and between the other agencies, needs to be enhanced. Governments cannot contain these cyber threats single-handedly through domestic measures alone. Neither should governments be left to grapple with this danger on their own any longer, as the expertise and skill to combat these cyber threats are largely dispersed across the globe. Hence the solution is to ensure collaboration with private sector and academia to conform with the rapidly changing technological world. National cyber security policy also affirms in developing effective public – private partnerships models. Active partnership with the private sector is essential, not only to share intelligence and evidence, but also in the development of technical tools and measures for law enforcement to prevent online criminality. The academic community also has an important part to play in the research and development of such measures.
