With an increase in incidents of cyber crime and lack of expertise with investigators to solve them, the Andhra Pradesh Police have roped in IT experts to provide training to officials dealing with the new-age menace.

“Insufficient expertise of the investigating officers is a big hurdle in probing cases of cyber crime as these officers are not adequately trained in investigation of cyber offences and collection of electronic evidence,” the Additional SP (Cyber Crime), Mr U. Rama Mohan, told PTI here.

“The police have taken up various training programmes with the help of experts in information technology law as cyber crimes require tracking offenders over the Internet, he said.”

Cyber offences, which include misdemeanours such as fraudulent bank transactions, sending offensive emails, cyber stalking and phishing, a practice of using fraudulent e-mails and copies of legitimate Web sites to extract financial data from computer users for the purpose of identifying theft, are relatively new to many investigators.

“Such officials need to be trained as lack of proper skills can be a big hurdle in solving such cases,” Mr Mohan said.

Preservation of the crime scene and search and seizure of electronic evidence require a different approach than the conventional methods, the SP, who is a forensic expert, added.

However, there are also practical problems in the enforcement of cyber laws due to issues such as jurisdiction, collection of evidence and inadequate knowledge about such laws, he said.

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