KOCHI: Two months after the city police began steps to monitor the activities of cyber cafes in Kochi, more measures are on the cards. With the number of cyber crime cases registered from different parts of the city rising, the cyber cell of the Kochi police has started taking more stringent measures to monitor the internet cafes operating in the city. Recently the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, had published some guidelines regarding the use of internet cafes. The guidelines were issued as part of the IT Act, after an increase in the number of cyber crime cases, including terror-related. “We have been taking strict measures in this regard. The functioning of cafes is being monitored by the cyber cell and the Crime Detachment DySP, who is the nodal officer for monitoring cafes. If a cyber crime is committed at a cafe, the cafe owner will also have to share the responsibility. We have asked the cafe owners to ensure that the activities of users are monitored. A meeting was held two months ago in which over 250 cafe owners attended,” said City Police Deputy Commissioner T Gopalakrishna Pillai. The police have been carrying out awareness programmes for the past couple of weeks. As part of these, cafe owners have been asked to keep data regarding the websites visited by users, the time they spent on each of the sites and other details. Also directives have been given to install cameras at cyber cafes, if possible. Cyber crime cases from internet cafes, including hacking, phishing attacks and similar offences, should be charged under section 84 (B) of the Information Technology Act. The police officials are of the view that the collective responsibility of the cafe owners will help prevent cyber crimes. There has been a steady increase in the number of cyber crime cases in the city. The police had earlier brought in a couple of measures to monitor the activities of the cafes. They had also organised a meeting of internet cafe owners in Kochi to educate them about the precautionary measures to be taken in this regard. As a result, the cafe owners had made it mandatory for users to produce an identity card while browsing net. Also they have been keeping a register on the name, number, date and time of browsing and identity proof of users. This will help cafe owners to identify the websites visited by the user in case of a police inquiry. It was the Kochi police which investigated the case related to an e-mail sent by a youngster threatening the Prime Minister. Also, there were some cyber cases related to morphing of pictures of women and posting them on social networking sites. Last year the Kochi police, with the help of some cyber security organisations, had organised a cyber security meet in the city.
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