DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

In order to effectively tackle the increasing cyber crimes, Punjab government will set up 28 new cybercrime police stations in all the 28 police districts, including three commissionerates, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said here on Friday.

Notably, recognising the critical need to address the challenge of cybercrime effectively, the Punjab Police Department has sent a proposal to strengthen its cybercrime investigation infrastructure capabilities.

DGP Gaurav Yadav, while expressing gratitude towards CM Bhagwant Singh Mann for clearing the proposal to set up Cybercrime Police Stations, said that these Cyber Crime Police Stations will serve as dedicated hubs for investigating and combating cyber-related offences including online financial fraud, identity theft, cyberbullying, hacking, and online scams.

He said that the Police Stations will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology and staffed by highly trained personnel specialised in digital forensics and cybercrime investigation. These Police Stations will work under the supervision of the concerned District SSP/CP and overall monitored by the Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Cyber Crime. Currently, one cybercrime police station is operational in the state, which was

notified in 2009.

The DGP further informed that to augment the capabilities of police in cybercrime investigations, the Chief Minister has also sanctioned fund of Rs 30 crore for the upgradation of Digital Investigation Training and Analysis Centre (DITAC Lab) at State Cyber Crime Division and Cyber Crime Investigation & Technical Support Units (CI&TSUs) at District Level.

The addition of the latest Software Forensics Tools would significantly enhance the capabilities of Punjab Police to deal with Child sexual assault material (CSAM), GPS data retrieval, IoS/Android Password Breaking, Cloud data retrieval, Drone Forensics and Cryptocurrency cases,

he added.

Sharing more details, ADGP Cyber Crime V Neeraja said that criminals are taking advantage of digitalization to target weakness in online infrastructure impacting individuals and businesses who become victims of these crimes.

The youth who are more on social media platforms and senior citizens who access social media content are also vulnerable to cyber frauds, she said, while adding that the establishment of these new Cyber Crime Police Stations will help in a long way in combating cybercrime.

Meanwhile, Helpline 1930 has been functioning 24x7 at the State Cyber Crime Office to receive calls on online financial frauds and reports on the NCRP portal.
(editor@dailyworld.in)