Cyber labs: Home Ministry sets March 31 deadline for states

The government has set March 31 as the deadline for states to set up cyber forensic training labs for which Rs 82.8 crore has already been released.

The setting up of these forensic training labs comes as part of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) plans to control cyber crimes in the country.

It has already asked states to gear up institutional mechanism to tackle cyber crimes, which pose "technical, administrative as well as legal challenges" in investigations.

The MHA has also unveiled an extensive training programme in which 37,500 policemen and judicial officers will be trained in the next two years about the facets of cyber crime.

As per the scheme, states that got Rs 3.94 crore as grant should set up a lab with at least 25 work stations.

Those who got Rs 2.30 crore each should have labs with 25 workstations and 15 for those who got Rs 1.48 crore each.

"These funds have to be utilised only for the purchase of cyber forensic tools and lab resources and it cannot be used for civil work or construction of lab," a senior official said.

According to a concept note circulated by the MHA on cyber crimes, most of the crimes now have an element of misuse of computers, smartphones and communication networks and these technologies are being used by criminals in committing conventional crimes.

"Increasing use of internet and social media has resulted in a plethora of varied crimes being committed in the cyber domain. It has become imperative for the law enforcement agencies to have an in-depth understanding of the working of the cyber domain and the modus operandi of crimes being committed therein," it said.

There is a need to evaluate electronic evidences for nailing culprits and the training is aimed at enabling investigators to extract legally tenable evidences for securing conviction in courts, it added.