First cyber forensic lab to start functioning soon

Vijayawada: The first ever cyber forensic laboratory in the state will be coming up in the city very soon as the arrangements are underway for its establishment at the Vijayawada city cyber police station.

The state government has decided to set up six cyber forensic labs to combat the cybercrimes. Crimes related to One Time Password (OTP), financial frauds, cheating, Facebook, SMSes, e-mails, ATM card theft, abusive messages, bulk SMSes, WhatsApp/Telegram/Instagram, etc., fall under the cybercrimes.

The culprits are using social media platform to abuse, cheat, harass and rob people. Cybercrimes are reported in every nook and corner of the state. In view of this, the state police department decided to set up six forensic cyber labs in the state. The first one will come up in Vijayawada very soon at the Vijayawada cybercrime police station, which was recently inaugurated by DGP R P Thakur.

The DGP announced that six labs would be established at Vijayawada, Vizag, Kurnool, Rajamahendravaram, Anantapur and Tirupati. So far, the Vijayawada cybercrime police are assisting the city police in investigation of cases and rendering technical help with the state-of-the-art technology obtained by the department.

Station House Officer of the Vijayawada cybercrime station K Srinivasa Rao told The Hans India that the cybercrime police would directly take part in the investigation and send teams to nab the culprits once the cyber lab is inaugurated. He said the staff would be increased at the station and services would be extended to the entire capital region of Amaravati.

The department is gearing up to inaugurate the lab very soon and obtained advance software and equipment. The staff is taking special training to investigate different types of cybercrimes related to monetary matters, frauds, Facebook messages, WhatsApp messages, OTPs, etc.

In 2016, the Vijayawada cybercrime station received 106 cases, in 2017 it received 231 cases. In the first eight months of this year up to August, the police station received 107 cases, said the Station House Officer. One Ttime Password (OTP) cases are the highest, 139, among the total cybercrime cases received by the police.

The conmen posing as bank employees call from the remote areas of other states to bank customers and get the One Time Password numbers saying that the bank account should be linked to Aadhaar number. After obtaining the OTP, they draw the money of the customers from their accounts through internet or mobile banking. The cybercrime SHO suggested that the people not reveal the OTPs to anyone.

Sub-inspector of police of the cybercrime police station V Srinivas said the people should be very careful with the phone calls or SMSes about the lottery prizes. He advised the people to inform the police if they receive such calls or messages informing that they won lottery. He said the police department is trying to create awareness about the cybercrimes and on preventing them.

Srinivas said the latest software technology obtained by Vijayawada cybercrime police station would be extremely useful to track the criminals and check the cybercrimes. He asked people not to trust the unknown callers and fall prey to them.