The rising instances of cyber crime world over is not an unstoppable or unavoidable phenomenon, says Dr Jitendra Shah, former IT consultant with Veermata Jijabai Institute of Technology at Matunga.
He adds that while cyber crime has become more sophisticated, so have the solutions and preventions. However, the lack of will from the authorities to implement the same allows criminals to get away.
“There is nothing in cyber crime that cannot be combated as the precautions are present and already in place. Somehow, those authorised to implement the measures tend to delay or show lethargy, as a result of which the criminals manage to commit the crime,” said Dr Shah.
The modus operandi of cyber criminals is unlike the crime in real life, since the cyber criminals tend to leave traces which can be tracked. “There are modules and systems that can track the criminals. Though some may be simple, others are intricate and will take time to get solved, but they get solved nevertheless,” said Dr Shah.
In the current context wherein ATM cards were cloned and then used in a different place to withdraw the cash, Dr Shah added that it could have been a case of intrusion or simple sleight of hand by the perpetrators. “What allowed them to manage the heist was the lack of implementation of certain security protocols (KYC) by the banks,” said Dr Shah.
He added that though India faced intrusion threats from other countries, the country was well equipped to combat it and also had state of the art Intrusion Detection Systems to counter the same. When asked if the number of intrusion cases could be quantified, he denied having any knowledge about it.
Another aspect of cyber crime that Dr Shah pointed was to the fact that many people easily
walk into the honeytraps being laid by the criminals. “The unsuspecting victims themselves are to blame for becoming the targets of such traps. Once trapped the hackers get easy access to the privtae information of the victims that ends up being exploited,” said Dr Shah.