The meet, intended to promote exchange of technical information between the CBI and the state law enforcement agencies, was the first of its kind. In a wide-ranging interview with Prafulla Marpakwar and Sunil Nair, CBI director RK Raghavan spoke on the nature of cyber-crime in India, targets most vulnerable to it, and the counter-strategies the agency intends to put in place.

How did the plan for the training sessions on cyber-crime emerge?
Cyber-crime will be the most significant trend in crime in this century. Mumbai is the city where cyber-crime will exceed all other forms of crime.

Even common criminals will take to cyber-crime as technology develops and spreads. I see it as my job to disseminate information in this area to police forces...the CBI is the right agency to pursue this objective since we have officers who have been trained in this aspect - Interpol agents have visited India to train our officers.

Is the programme in Mumbai a one-off or part of a series?
We have decided to have four such training sessions. Mumbai was chosen as the venue for the programme in the western zone because it has the infrastructure to support the programme. Thirty officers from five states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Goa and Rajasthan - were trained during these two days. They in turn will go back and brief others in their respective forces. We hope to initiate a new culture in criminal investigation. It's a start, but it's vital because things are changing so fast. Soon, computers will be part of everyone's life. The average policeman must understand and use computers - it will be good for him too because even if he leaves the force, he'll be suitably equipped for better prospects.

Alongside the training and development of infrastructure, won't legislative changes be needed to tackle cybercrime? Well, we have the Information Technology Act 2000, a new Act, to help us in this area. India is the 12th country in the world to enact such a law. It has provisions needed to fight cybercrime. There may be some lacunae but we can make changes as we go along. What we really need is information and cooperation, like from the private sector, which we know is a target of cybercrime. There are many cases of their systems being hacked into but they are reluctant to share this information.

(Maharashtra Director General of Police Subhash Malhotra, also present during the interview, says, ``Corporates worry that their reputation will be compromised if it becomes public that their systems were hacked. They don't want such publicity.'') They are trying to promote internet banking. Say, if news gets around that their systems are not completely safe, business will be affected.

What kind of businesses are most vulnerable to cybercrime?
Mainly businesses that make widespread use of computers like banking, air reservation systems, power utilities, telephone services. We had a meeting with some private companies recently where we asked them to come forward with information. We are aware of regular occurrences of hacking but these companies are reluctant to get involved with the criminal justice system. We are particularly worried about the ISI but we are learning to cope.

(ENS)