Secretary and Director General
Directorate General of Information and Public
Relations Government of Maharashtra
The Maharashtra Police is experimenting and deploying several modern tools and technologies to ensure security for citizens, says Brijesh Singh, Secretary and Director General, Directorate General of Information and Public Relations, Government of Maharashtra, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
Since the Central and the State governments are focusing on safe cities, what are the initiatives taken by the Maharashtra Government in this regard?
Any online solution procured by the government of Maharashtra has robust security features. We ensure that every project has a security system in place.
Security is never taken as an adjunct which can be added later on, but it is a key aspect of any specific project or programme and cannot be overlooked. Hence, all the smart city projects undertaken by the Maharashtra government have cyber-security provisions of the top-notch level.
The state government has started many initiatives to ensure the security of its citizens. The CCTV network of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur is almost in the final stage of completion.
Apart from this, there are dedicated cyber police stations in Maharashtra which have state of the art cyber-labs to help investigate local instances of cyber crimes. Earlier, we use to hire external cyber experts. We did not have modern tools and technologies and the requisite knowledge for the investigation of cyber crimes which led to the wastage of investigation time. But all this is passé now.
Maharashtra is the only state to have dedicated state of the art cyber-labs with all kind of modern technologies deployed. Earlier, there were cyber cells in Mumbai and Pune only. With the launch of Maharashtra Cyber Security project, all the districts in the state have separate cyber labs with their offices located at district collector and police commissioner’s offices. We are using the existing network of the government to connect all the cyber cells in the state.
Technology has enhanced the comfort of our lives providing everything on our fingertips, how Maharashtra Police has deployed technology to ensure security of the citizens?
Maharashtra is a unique state to come up with almost a thousand of cyber security projects. Apart from the cyber security labs being established in each district, we are in the process of linking each of them through a Central Processing System in Mumbai for a seamless monitoring of these cyberlabs across districts in Maharashtra.
We are also organising training facilitation programme for experts in cyber security. In addition to this we are also organising awareness programmes for general citizens.
For corporate and our own executives, we are coming up with Computer emergency response team (CERT) Maharashtra, which is still in the designing stage and will be launched through tenders within the next six months. The Maharashtra Police is experimenting and deploying several modern tools and technology to ensure security to the citizens, thus easing their lives.
What is the roadmap of Maharashtra Cyber Security department to raise awareness amongst the citizens?
We are focusing on creating awareness among citizens and teenagers who are primarily affected by cyber crimes. Now with demonetisation creating waves of digital transformation among people, incidents of fraud, hacking and other related cyber crimes are on the rise. Hence, proper knowledge and awareness is of paramount importance.
“For creating a friendlier ambience for our citizens, we have created over 500 cyber police stations in different districts, wherein they can lodge their complaint easily. We also issue advisory whenever there is a cyber tech intelligence with us.”
Besides, we are in the process of setting up world class cyber-labs with all updated modern tools and technology, which can minimise the efforts needed for any kind of investigation.
We are collaborating with the best corporate that provides us technology solutions for setting up these cyber labs. C-DAC is our system integrator. Our projects maintain confidentiality, integrity and at the same time maintains profit of the department. For creating a friendlier
For creating a friendlier ambience for our citizens, we have created over 500 cyber police stations in different districts, wherein they can lodge their complaint easily. We also issue advisory whenever there is a cyber tech intelligence with us.
“The Maharashtra Police is experimenting and deploying several modern tools and technology to ensure security to the citizens, thus easing their lives.”
In the times to come, we will go in the mode of issuing advisory to people sector wise. For example, senior citizens face different set of threats than teenagers or women and others. Financial sector too requires a different kind of cyber security and awareness which we will provide to citizens.Has the cyber-crime rate decreased in the state, especially after
Has the cyber-crime rate decreased in the state, especially after systematic implementation of technology in the department?
The more digital intervention we will have in our daily operating systems, the more cyber crime will increase. Cyber crime is at the highest where money is involved. Hence the impact is bound to increase as long as we are moving towards digitisation.
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