A young crusader against cybercrimes

The Internet has changed the world so rapidly making it a global village. Anything and everything is just a click away. It has been useful to people from all walks of life and has become a part of life for the youth across the globe. However, this marvel of technology has a dark side and many young children fall prey to the preparators, who indulge in various cybercrimes. The main cause of youngsters falling into traps of these anonymous miscreants is a lack of awareness of how to deal with cybercrimes.

All of 22, Rupesh Mittal, who works as a Cybersecurity consultant in the Cyber Crime Prevention Against Women and Children Cell in Andhra Pradesh is on a mission to create awareness about cybersecurity among youngsters.

"While conducting workshops at various colleges in India and working with the Andhra Pradesh State police, I came across many offences like financial frauds, harassment, job frauds, lottery frauds, social media crimes and bullying. At that time, I decided to teach online safety to young children as they are easy targets for preparators," Rupesh, who is also a member of Data Security Council of India, Hyderabad Chapter shared.

Rupesh studied in VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology and was awarded the REX Karamveer Chakra for raising awareness about online safety.

Excerpts from an interview:

Tell us about about Cyber Jagrithi programme?

It is an awareness programme that educates young children about cybercrimes. Cyber Jagrithi Programme helps people understand how they can prevent themselves from becoming a victim to such crimes and steps to be taken towards it. This programme also gives you detailed information by using case studies and punishable offence for those who start and encourage such crimes.

Why did you choose to be a cybersecurity expert?

Cybersecurity is the most demanding and evolving technology today. It helps companies and people stay safe by fighting cybercrime. Cybersecurity evolves quickly, so one has to always be learning and developing new skills. A good salary from the start and then the sky is the limit.

How to tackle cyberstalking and cybercrimes?

I believe in 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'. Cyberstalking involves following a person's movement across the internet by posting messages on the bulletin boards frequented by the victim, entering the chatrooms frequented by the victim.

The privacy settings of internet help prevent strangers from noticing you. It is always advisable to use tools like VPN to hide details. For crimes as per my knowledge and experience… prevention is the best way. Money can't be earned without hard work and so do not fall into traps of cybercriminals to people who say you have won money, etc.

Do you recommend any tools for students to stay safe on social media?

There're no tools per se to stay safe from unknown people other than making the right choice in selecting the audience that sees your content. Tools like VPN are recommended as they make your identification private.

For some reasons many victims of cybercrimes do not approach the police to report, how can this be changed?

Yes, this is a very challenging issue faced by the police. To report cybercrimes citizens of India can utilise the online portal https://cybercrime.gov.in/ to file a complaint. Many State police departments like Telangana has facilities to file a case online they can utilise them too.

What are your future plans?

Firstly, to start Cyber Jagrithi Student Chapter in every college and school. It is same as NSS, where the responsibility is to educate and create awareness about online safety and prevention from cybercrimes.