Govt to hire cybercrime specialist to catch online wildlife traffickers

Live Mint , Tuesday, July 07, 2015
Correspondent : Mayank Aggarwal
New Delhi: The environment ministry is looking for a cybercrime expert who can help it track illegal wildlife trade online.

The cybercrime specialist would have to work with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB), which is the ministry’s arm in charge of combating organized wildlife crime.

“The engagement of the cyber crime specialist is to be made mainly for assisting the bureau in bringing the perpetrators of the illegal trade of wildlife products over Internet to the book though wildlife crime information/data analysis,” said an environment ministry note seen by Mint.

It added that the expert would also assist the WCCB in securing its sensitive data base and digital records.

The specialist will be responsible for “web patrolling for detection of scheduled wildlife articles on sale of Internet, identification and tracking of IP addresses of the suspects or criminals” and also create a database of criminals, the note said.

The Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, mandates the WCCB to collect and collate intelligence related to organized wildlife crime activities and disseminate the same to state and other enforcement agencies; establish a centralized wildlife crime data bank; coordinate actions by various agencies; and assist foreign authorities and international agencies.

According to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime, there are many challenges posed by the poaching and illicit trafficking of wildlife including the involvement of number of related crimes such as fraud, counterfeiting, money-laundering, violence and corruption.

A United Nations report released in March 2015 said that organized crime worth as much as $10 billion a year threatens wildlife, especially endangered species, and is rising.

Activists welcomed the move to crack down on cybercrime.

“In the past three months, around six seizures have been made of illegal wildlife products through systematic online tacking. Besides, dedicated tracking of Internet is also resulting in leads for taking action against illegal wildlife trade. So, this step of environment ministry is certainly a welcome move. Even one dedicated person is good enough and he can make the difference tracking wildlife crime online,” said Shekhar Kumar Niraj, head of TRAFFIC in India.

TRAFFIC is a non-governmental organization that works closely with the national and state governments and various agencies to help study and monitor action to curb illegal wildlife trade.

“But authorities need to ensure enforcement on ground. Illegal online wildlife trade has been prevalent across world for the last 15-20 years. Many a times it has been tracked on popular websites. But in India it is now on rise due to more number of people using the Internet,” Niraj said.

 
SOURCE : http://www.livemint.com/Politics/5hhv1M2XPy7M01MYkN2wlJ/Govt-to-hire-cybercrime-specialist-to-catch-online-wildlife.html
 


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