Cops plan to track terror outfits’ phones, emails

The anti-terror unit of the Delhi police(special cell) is in the process of procuring high-end software and hardware to keep track on mails and phones of terror groups operating in the national capital. The department has procured a high-end equipment through which it can also hack any encrypted communications. To fight out the terror outfits, the unit will now effectively monitor the virtual world of the suspected terrorists and radicalised youth.

At a recent law and order meeting chaired by police commissioner Alok Kumar Verma, special commissioner of police Arvind Deep, who heads the special cell, stated: “The ministry of communication and IT, department of telecommunications, has granted permission to the special cell for the procurement of hardware of multi-user Internet Monitoring System (IMS) connectivity.” Now, the special cell has initiated the process for the procurement of the equipment.

The entire proposal of procuring IMS and software worth Rs 6 crore will be set up at the Lodhi Colony office of the unit. Through this system, the police can now crack into sites like twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and even chat applications like telegram, Wickr, Gliph and WhatsApp.

“The hardware and software to be procured by global tendering and many companies have presented their demonstrations to us. The volume of material on social-media sites is a challenge and to monitor this is a very tough task. We will be using keywords to crack the coded language between suspected terrorists,” the officer said.

With the procurement of high-end hardware and software, the special unit will not have to be more dependent of social networking and mail giants like Google, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr and even chat application like telegram, Wickr, Gliph and WhatsApp.

Such an infrastructure is only accessible to the Central Intelligence Agencies so far and the Delhi police is the first police force to get permission from the Union home ministry to start Internet and social networking surveillance unit. “When terror organisations are running a campaign on social networking sites, we need to upgrade ourselves to fight them effectively,” the officer added.