The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

A three-day regional cyber crime conference under the initiative of Bangladesh begins in Dhaka Sheraton Hotel in the city from today (Monday).

Representatives from Bangladesh, Australia, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka and Nepal will participate in the seminar, organisers said.

Only police and security officials will attend the business sessions, they said. Bangladesh, where no cyber crime is reported to the police so far, is organising such conference for the first time to prepare itself for facing the challenge of the new front, acting inspector general of police (IGP) NBK Tripura said on Sunday.

Quoting the statistics, the acting IGP said at a press conference at the Police Headquarters in the city that online fraud involving 105 billion US dollars might be committed in 2007 alone and the cost of data due to the malicious activities will reach 40 billion dollars globally this year.

"So, we should be prepared for undertaking precautionary measures to check the crime committed through the use of computing and communications technologies," Tripura added.

Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Police and convener of the seminar Mohammad Saiful Alam, liaison officer of Australian Federal Police and counsellor of the Australian High Commission in Dhaka Mark Briskey, and ICT systems and strategy specialist of the Police Reform Programme Wojciech Koprowicz attended the press conference.

Tripura, who is also the national project director of the ongoing police reform programme, said along with the current reforms, the challenges of the cyber crime will be faced.

Under the reform programme, an unit on the cyber crime will be established in the CID, he said.

Replying to a question, he said a draft law on the cyber crime, prepared in 2006, is now under further study. Some adjustments, like commissions, omissions and elaborations, are needed to make it a law, because many persons are unaware of happenings of the cyber world, the acting IGP added. By 2008, the law on the cyber crime will be enacted, hoped Tripura.

Bangladesh, as a country and SAARC as a region, is a less telephone and IT density area. According to the statistics, Bangladesh had 19.131 million mobile cellular and 1.134 million main line telephones in 2006. It has 4,50,000 Internet users.

The tele-density in Bangladesh was 0.6 per 100 people and in India 1.5 per 100 people in 2005.

Pointing to the recent domestic surge in the sales of mobile phones, Tripura said if any one compares with the global figure he may not be satisfied with the Bangladesh figure, but if any one compares with the present time with the recent past that bears a lot of difference.

"You should consider that it's a trans national crime, and by just shutting the door it is difficult to escape from the cyber crime, " he cautioned.