KOCHI: Cyber criminals, mend your ways or be prepared to cool your heels behind bars. With cyber crimes growing at a rate of 200 to 300 per cent annually, the government is looking at stringent laws to put in place more effective deterrents in the virtual world, said Union Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan at a forum here on Friday. “A committee has already been set up under former Supreme Court Judge Srikrishna to draw up the contours of the proposed new data protection law,” she said while inaugurating the tenth edition of Cocon X 2017, a two-day annual conference on hacking and cybersecurity, at the Le Meridien.

She said the number of internet users in the country will grow to 700-750 million in another four to five years and India will soon beat the US and China in terms of mobile data consumption.

“If India stood at the 155th position in terms of mobile consumption before five months, now it is going to beat the US and China in another five months,” she said.Aruna said over one lakh grama panchayats will be connected through broadband internet under BharatNet by December this year and it will add another two lakh by March 2019.

She said the trend of Internet consumption will help India earn its 25 per cent GDP from digital technologies in another five years. “At present, India’s digital economy contributes about $350 to $380 billion out of a total GDP of $2 trillion," Sundararajan said. "At the rate at which digital payments is growing there is no other country adding almost 100 million mobile payment users every month. In the three months itself, we have added almost 250 million mobile payment users.” In his presidential address, the state police chief Loknath Behra said Kerala Police willstart two more Cyber Domes - one each in Kochi and Kozhikode. “Consultations are going on with technological experts and we hope to start the same in Kochi at Infopark within a year," he said.

Handling teens with 'Kid Gloves'

Kochi:With several teenagers being dragged into cyber bullying across the state, the police is about to lend them a helping hand to escape from the trap. Through its Kids Glove programme, the Police Department is planning to educate as many as 20,000 students from 3,000 schools about the dangers of cyberspace.Thiruvananthapuram Range IG Manoj Abraham told reporters efforts are on to make the teenagers aware about the hidden dangers in cyber space.

“Every day, several private photos are being shared by children on social media platforms. But they are unaware of the fact the pictures become public property once they are shared on social media. Even the Internet is being used for the drug trade. Through this project we are aiming to make the students aware about the lurking dangers,” the officer said on the sidelines of Cocon 2017, a two-day hacking and cyber-security meet organised by the Kerala Police. Experts from the industry and law enforcement agencies with international speakers will also be part of the training programme to educate the students on how to use social media safely. “We have also established a relationship with NGOs such as Information Security Research Awareness Organisation and their volunteers will visit schools to provide first-hand training," he said.