By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 20 Apr: The English version of the book, “Cyber Encounters”, was launched today to convert public awareness campaigns into movements.
The public awareness campaign has emerged as the most powerful medium for effective prevention of cyber crimes. ‘Cyber Encounters’, a book that promotes public awareness campaigns, has been written by Ashok Kumar, Director General of Police, Uttarakhand, and OP Manocha (former DRDO Scientist).
The English version of the book was released at a programme organised by the IIT Alumni Association at the Seminar Hall of IIT Delhi in the presence of Prof Dr Vikram Singh, former Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh, and Sanjay Arora, Commissioner, Delhi Police. This book is available for readers from today.
The book has been published by the prestigious Penguin Random House. The foreword of the book has been written by Amitabh Bachchan.
Ashok Kumar is a 1989 batch IPS officer of the Uttarakhand cadre and is currently posted as Director General of Police, Uttarakhand. The first book written by him, “Khakee Mein Insaan”, has been awarded the GB Pant Award by BPR&D, Ministry of Home Affairs. His second book based on internal security, “Challenges to Internal Security of India”, has been published by McGraw Hill. “Cyber Encounters”, co-authored by OP Manocha, who is an active blogger and writer, involved with various defence projects in DRDO. It has been presented in the form of twelve fascinating stories. The book deals with the fake identities, ransomware, cards displayed by cyber criminals in social media. It introduces readers to real cyber crimes related to cloning, sextortion and phishing, etc. This book throws light on the new methods used by criminals along with making people aware about the crimes committed in cyberspace. Common citizens have also been given important tips to avoid cyber crimes in the summary of 12 special stories related to cyber crimes.
Addressing the readers present during the programme, Ashok Kumar said that cyber criminals can be avoided by adopting the five-second rule before clicking on any link while working online. There is also a need to be extra alert and aware.
OP Manocha gave information about the new tools being used by cyber criminals through the stories included in the book. The panel discussion was moderated by Advaita Kala, scriptwriter and journalist of Bollywood thriller film ‘Kahaani’. The techniques used by cyber criminals and the challenges faced by the police in curbing cyber crimes were discussed in detail. After the panel discussion, many questions were raised by the readers regarding cyber crimes, which were answered by Ashok Kumar.
The Hindi version of the book, “Cyber Encounters”, will be released in Dehradun in the coming days.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Alaknanda Ashok. The programme was anchored by Shakti Manocha and Charul Sharma. Cyber experts and legal experts, senior officials, educationists and more than 1,000 students were present in the auditorium during the programme.
