Hyderabad: ‘DiLSey’ army getting ready to fight cybercrime

Hyderabad: Cybercriminals beware! From the home of IT in Hyderabad, where everything starts with cyber, a growing young and enthusiastic army of cyber warriors are training hard to fight the crooks of the cyber world.

The initiative, one that has been rightly named Digital Literacy to Secure Youth (DiLSey), is already a hit among schools with the youth sessions conducted by the Cyberabad Police and Society for Cyberabad Security Council training over 12,000 students on digital literacy so far.

The objective of the initiative is to build an army of cyber warriors from among the children and youth to fight cybercrime. “The best way to counter these crimes is to educate the masses and create awareness. An initiative like this is perhaps the first in the country. It is the youth for the youth movement for a secured digital world,” Cyberabad Police Commissioner M Stephen Raveendra said.

SCSC Secretary Krishna Yedula said the response to the initiative was overwhelming. The training consists of two sessions on weekends. The initial training will be a physical one, and then volunteers will have an online session followed by an offline session. The volunteers will then educate the targeted sections on cybercrimes on social media, online apps, games, fraudulent links and smartphone addiction among others. Recently, the first batch of the DiLSey volunteers finished training.

“It is very important that the youth join this activity to secure the society from cybercrime. The Cyberabad Police is equipped with the Cybercrime Control Room and request the volunteers to keep sharing cybercrime-related incidents instantly to control the crimes faster,” Raveendra said. DCP (Crimes) Shingenavar Kalmeshwar said the police is addressing various issues faced by the public and cautioned the people not to fall for risky, high yield returns schemes and not to download doubtful apps or share personal data, which could go into the wrong hands.

On most Saturdays, Doordarshan is telecasting a dial-in programme on cybercrimes in the mornings, and Cyberabad Police and SCSC cyber security experts are answering public queries. Those interested in becoming a volunteer of DiLSey can write to the SCSC on email ID crm@scsc.in or call on 9177283831. SCSC is also open to conducting DiLSey sessions in any organisation such as hospitals, manufacturing units, factories, housing communities, gated communities, colleges etc., and they can send requests via email to cybersec@scsc.in or ad@scsc.in.