Event : CopTech Date : 16th September Venue : Commissioner Office, Pune

Introduction to CopTech :

Pune Police along with Nasscom and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) on 30 June, established the Cop Tech forum to increase sharing of ideas & knowledge on cyber security between the Cops and the IT Industry. In presence of many CXO of reknowned IT Industry and top brass cops Commissioner of police Satya Pal Singh signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Nasscom.

< IT companies see CopTech as a great business oportunity. Some how we didnt find any one from IBM who were there in last inaugural meet>

The Event :

Presence : 60+ members, mostly from IT, BPO, Security Consultants and NULL. <around 14 NULL Members, Majority :)> Anchored by : DCP Rajendra Dahale. Headed by : Comissioner of Police Dr. Satya Pal Singh

<He has huge popularity among the youth, probably the only tech savy commissioner who blogs, inaugurate Hacker Summits and Promotes Cyber Security at such a great level>

Other dignities :

• Mr. Pratap Reddy (IPS, Security Advisor to NASSCOM) <Guys, we were impressed by his knowledge & great visibility in the operations of IT and Police Department.> ,

• Anant Shinde (Add. Comm. of Police Crime Branch)

• Deepak Shikarpur (President Computer Society Of India) <Pune’s IT Icon, he is very popular in Pune, writes columns, I have read some of his sci-fi type tech columns :) >.

• Anand Deshpande (MD Persistent Systems)

Opening Speach : Mr. Dahale Breifed on the coptech initiative and the challanges in front of cyber crime department. Few intresting points he maidjottings out of his speach

1. Cyber Crime Cell Pune – Formed on first 1st July 2003 and 5 cases were registered in the same year.
2. 207 casese were registered in 2008
3. 182 cases have been reported till 31 Aug 2009
4. The major cyber crime complain comprises of
5. Defacing on orkut and other social sites (67)
6. Nigerian Frauds (12)
7. Mobile Hacking (52)
8. Email account hacking (11)
9. Others.

The Highlight of CopTech : Mr. Pratap Reddy

Mr. Reddy took on the discussion further and enumurated the challanges the Police department has in fron of them

1. Modernising Police Control Room : Drawing an anlogy between Police Control room and BPO industry, Mr. Reddy said that theres a lot department can learn from BPO industry to better manage the operations. He gave 3 points of focus : a. People : to be trained for soft skills and working with more efficiency. b. Process : Redifine process to better manage the control romm operations & c. Technology : to facilitalte the People to execute porcesses and operations more effectively and efficiently.

2. Effectively chanellising the information gathered from Control room to the task forces which work on the actual sight of incidents. a. Improvements in Response time b. Exploit the information effectively c. Use of digital gadgets like GPS, digital Maps etc.

3. Data Mining. Department has huge data and it is ever increasing. Finding relevant information is the biggest challange. Departments is in need of appropriate technology/tools to improve their data mining capabilities.

4. Use of CCTV and Video Analytics in real time to proactively controll the incidnets and improve response time. He said currently CCTV is used in responsive manner. Department needs technology which can analyse the videos and generate alerts/inform control room in real time.

5. Modern Cyberforensic Lab, tools and Expertise. With the current state, Cyber crime cell takes good amount of time to solve the cases. With enhanced tools and expetise there is good scope to minimize the turn around time.

6. Citizen Advisory : Stressing on Prevention, Mr. Reddy said its higly improtant to make citizens aware of threats on net. Awareness is a good way to fight cyber crime.

The IT Icon of Pune – Depak Shikarpur:

Deepak Shikarpur had mentioned said

“In my child hood I saw two films back 2 back Pandu Havaldar and James Bond. and had thought when will our Pandu Havaldar will become James Bond? And Im pleased to tell that with the modernisition, technology and the new outlook of these dedicated cops, Yes we feel that our cops are no less then James Bond”.

<Yes Sir!!! we all agree with you on that>.

The Chief – Dr. Satya Pal Singh :

Addressing the COPTech Forum Dr. Satya Pal Singh read out another lottery mail which he recieved on his black berry and challanged the corporates to come up with better SPAM filters.

“Its like a marriage of Police Department and Technology. And the relation is dominated by the stronger party. The technology is stronger party and hence department has taken up this challange to make better use of technology and work in smart, effective and efficient manner.”

He also made an early announcement of a new modern Forensic lab in Pune which will be probably best in the country

<Tentative date of official inauguration is 7th Oct. but department is yet to find some chief guest to inaugurate it>

Vote of Thanks : Mr. Tungar thanked the Corporates, Dignities and NULL members present for the Meet.

We null members had a good long discussions with Mr.Tungar on their day today challanges, non-cooperation, loose operations of IT and Telecom industry etc. He also discussed a famous case where a person was victim of digital evidences which were against him and how they solved the case based on their experience with humans and not with machine. We had a great time with him.

With sips of coffe, crackles of wafers and sweetness of Gulabjaumns, we were indulged in networking with many other eminent IT personalities present at Cop-Tech.

It was a great event. We were amazed by the humbleness of Police department and there drive to achieve technical excellence right from operations to dealing politely with tax payers.

Dr. Satyapal Singh told

“Control room daily recieves thousands of calls. 75% of which are irrevelent, miss guiding or just to ask some lame address. But still would like our force to work under cool and improve on their soft skills.”

Obviously this event has increased my respect for Police force and has motivited me (rather all nulls) to contribute in this drive called COP-Tech…

Enjoy,

~Ajit