Concerned over cyber attacks as well as misuse of social media for terror indoctrination, the Union home ministry has constituted an expert study group to draw up a comprehensive roadmap to tackle cyber crimes in the country. The group, which will comprise senior academicians specialising in computer science and cyber security professionals, will suggest measures to tighten cyber monitoring and recommend possible partnerships with the public and private sector, NGOs (both domestic and foreign) and international bodies towards this end.
The announcement of the expert study group comes days after Union home minister Rajnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that there was a need to strengthen cyber monitoring in the wake of growing use of internet and social media by global terror outfits like ISIS to indoctrinate the youth. Singh was responding to concerns raised by MPs in the wake of the arrest of Bangalore professional Mehdi Masroor Biswas for operating a pro-ISIS Twitter account.
The five members of the expert panel are Dr Rajat Moona, Director General CDAC, Pune; Professor Krishnan, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru; Dr Gulshan Rai, Director General Cert-In; Dr Manindra Aggarwal, Professor, Computer Science, IIT, Kanpur; and Dr D Dass, Professor IIT, Bengaluru. Joint secretary (Centre-state) in the home ministry, Kumar Alok will be its convenor.
The Terms of Reference of the Expert Group include preparing a roadmap to effectively tackle cyber crimes in the country and give suitable recommendations on all its facets; recommend possible partnerships with public and private sector, NGOs, international bodies and international NGOs; and, lastly, to recommend any other special measures/steps the expert group may like to recommend with regard to tackling cyber crimes.
