ApiAp - Mumbai

Mumbai cops to invade cyberspace

web-admin — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 07:16:46 -0700

K YATISH RAJAWAT AND RITWIK DONDE in Ecomomic Times report

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2006 03:24:28 AM]

MUMBAI: This time round, they don’t want to be left limping in the chase. The 7/11 blasts have spooked the Mumbai police into tightening the noose around cyber crime. With terrorists using internet-based communication to manage their sleeper cells and plan operations, the Mumbai police wants to monitor the city’s cyber cafes.

The police wants to licence all internet cafes in the city, classifying them under the public amusement category. Each internet cafe owner will have to shell out a licensing fee of Rs 500 per computer for registration.

The state government has published a notification to seek public feedback on the proposed rules, which give the police the discretion to reject a licence. According to the draft rules, a “no objection submission” from the landlord/society where the cyber cafes conduct their business, along with NOCs from the civic body’s health and other departments, will also be needed.

The rules do not, however, cover STD/ISD booths which also have computing terminals for VOIP calls and email communications. The rules seek to identify internet cafes on the basis of whether online gaming is being carried out there.

The city police has wanted to regulate internet cafés for the past three years but the urgency appears to have increased after the investigations in the 7/11 blasts. A top Mumbai police official told ET that anti-nationals are increasingly becoming tech-savvy and hence, the need to police such places. The police had also planned to impose a 11 pm deadline on cyber cafes, he added.

“The move is to get these commercial outlets to be more responsible... The gazette has sought public opinion and if people feel there is a need to address certain points, they’re welcome,” he said.

Intelligence agencies in the US and the UK track Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications like emails and VOIP calls using technology tools. Unlike voice calls which can be tapped easily, IP communication is difficult to tap as the end-user device changes. Users can communicate from different computers, change email IDs, or communicate even through postings on blogs or websites.

Cyber cafes, though, are just one access point for terrorists. GPRS-enabled mobile phones, and access to the net through other personal computing devices are equally common.

Cyber cafe owners, on their part, feel the fees are too high, and bad for business.

On whether cyber cafes are often portrayed as “shady joints”, Ashish Saboo, president, Association of Public ICT Tools Access Providers, which has internet cafe owners as members says, “We are service providers and shouldn’t be penalised for users’ actions. Cyber cafes are not public entertainment places.” This fee would mean that half of the monthly earnings of an internet cafe owner would go towards acquiring the licence, and will effectively render small and medium-sized internet cafes unviable, he adds.

Earlier, the cyber crime cell of the Mumbai police had initiated a move under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which made cyber cafe users show documents such as college or school IDs or driving licences as proof of identity and had the cyber cafes maintain a log book for users.

The Tamil Nadu police has also insisted on registration of all internet cafes in Chennai. This was done in an attempt to monitor Tamil militants using these cafes for communication. The registration fee, though, is Rs 75 per terminal.

Message From Mumbai Police Commissioner

mumbai — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 00:04:11 -0700

The Mumbai Police commissioner has informed all cyber cafes to be extra alert for the next 15 days from 18th Aug, 2006 to 1st September 2006 & has sent a circular addressing all Mumbai cyber cafes to maintain the register.

In these difficult times, where Mumbai police has several challenges, it is our duty to help as a responsible citizen.

Please maintain the register as per the guidelines forwarded. It will be in our interest to maintain the register even beyond the above mentioned period.

For your convenience, we have created a format. Save as Template & create a fresh page.

How to maintain register, some suggestion:

We have to be extra careful to ensure that the name & address details does not fall in wrong hands hence printout a fresh page every time.

See to it there are limited entries in a single page.

As the page finishes, preserve it in a file & store it carefully so that no one can access the files.

Do not handover the files to anyone from any department except from the Police department after verifying the identity of the Police.

It is your right to demand an identity card of the police & it is their duty to furnish one. In case of doubt, you can dial 100 or the local police station & verify the police officers identity.

Lets make our city safe.

Attachment	Size
Cyber Cafe visitor register.xls	16 KB
Circular From Police Commissioner.jpg	172.74 KB

Survey on Mumbai Cyber Cafes - June 2005

admin — Fri, 09 Jun 2006 23:37:43 -0700

ApiAp conducted a sample survey on Cyber Cafes in Mumbai in June 2005. A random 40 cafes in Mumbai - South, Western Suburbs, & Central suburbs participated in the survey.

The primary data collection and survey was done by Mr Anshu Shukla & Shrish Kumar Tiwari , students of the Indian Institute of Information Technology ( IIIT) Allahabad, India.

Summary of the Survey:

The cyber café owners surveyed most of them offered Internet access, print & scan service.
77% of 40 respondents ’s cafe existence is less than 3 years 92.5% claimed they are some what satisfied with business.
80% of cafe own 6 to 10 terminals Most have invested less than Rs 200 thousand.
97% of cafes operate from rented premises.
Almost all access Internet through cable internet (ADSL connection or extended LAN networks using cat5 cables)
Median rate for Internet access fee is Rs 15/- per hour ( USD 0.34 ) Median traffic ranges from 34 - 40 visitors a day This converts into a probable Gross collection of just Rs 350 to 600 a day (USD 8-14)
Most cafes offer a significant discount to regular customers.
While 82% concurred to be their significant source of earning but at the same time 78% claimed other sources of earning too, popular options are PCO, DTP, Training etc.
55% claimed they know most of the customers, 30% claimed they know some of them & only 15% knew none of their customer.
When asked to rank the significant problems faced in operating the business: The number one problem was attributed to Business competition followed by Regulation problem, Hardware maintenance & last managing customers.
Only 43% & 39% of respondents knew the concept of Hacking & Piracy. 65% felt that their cafe can be misused but none could explain how.
95% of those surveyed claim to maintain a register of visitors for sake of business accounting, 15% even ask for proof of identity.
Conclusion: The Cyber café operations are not sustainable; most of the operators are early entrepreneurs. Although many claimed to be satisfied by the opportunity but then a significant 77% of the owners are in the business for less than 3 years, It is worthy to note the industry is over 8 years old. & The café business as hand in hand with the Internet rage had peeked in year 2000 with the burst of Dot COM bubble. Perhaps many have not factored the long-term capital cost recovery in the relative high operating cash flow thus look attractive. The low investment requirement added to low entry barrier & low skill base makes an ideal opportunity for micro entrepreneurs to start a venture. Subsequently Cyber café do not seem to be the main stay of the operator’s livelihood. Net earnings seem just about a bit higher than a salaried job for the same skill set. Most of the visitors frequent the same cafes & operators too are acquainted to them. Further for sake of business accounting most do maintain a rudimentary cross check systems. Thus detection of cyber crime under cover of anonymity offered by cyber café is not very non comprehendible But inferring from their responses on possibility of misuse of cafes, it seems most of them have a hazy understanding on Cyber security issues. It may be possible the café owners can be made gullible into abetting the crime. The whole scale policing of cyber café have proved an ineffective solution but a little support and nurturing of these micro entrepreneur community by way of awareness and recognition can certainly make cyber crime in the cover of anonymity manageable.

Thank you Anshu & Shirish & your other guides , Cyber Cafe operators owe you a lot ! We look forward more researchers like you & Anikar Haseloff take interest in this omni present yet anonymous participants in the ICT4D.