18 hi-tech cyber labs to come across UP

Lucknow: To help police tackle cyber related challenges, the Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday gave in-principle nod to set up 18 hi-tech cyber labs – one each in 18 police ranges of the state. The government has also agreed to sanction Rs 40 crore for the project in the first phase.DIG, UP cyber cell, N Kolanchi said until now only one cyber lab was functional at Forensic Science Lab in Lucknow. “Now, each police range will have one cyber lab and whenever cyber related offences are reported we can crack it in a lesser time frame as of now pressure is on one lab only,” the official said.He said in a cyber lab specific tools are present which fastens the task, for instance the mobile of a criminal is found to be locked and encrypted then there are ‘password recovery and data decryption tool’ to do it in seconds.Kolanchi said they have studied the existing cyber labs in other states like Telangana, Gujarat, Delhi and Mumbai and some foreign police models like that in New York were studied and analysed and based on it an advanced structure of labs was proposed for the state.The official added that it would have tools like forensic disk imaging tool, media content indexing tool, software programmes required for digital forensic evidence investigation. He added that cyber help desks are now being set up in all police stations.“Now, not only will the arrest of cybercriminals be easy, but the pending investigations will be expedited,” Kolanchi said adding that UP police also got its personnel posted at NCRB's online cyber training module ‘Cytrain’.Another senior official at the DGP headquarters said impetus is being made on Uttar Pradesh State Institute of Forensic Sciences (UPSIFS) to come up soon.“The main objective of establishing the UPSIFS is to build better policing, capacity building in the field of crime control and forensic sciences and to develop awareness and scientific attitude towards scientific institutions,” Kolanchi said.