Bihar: Now, EOU bid to protect pupils from cybercrime

PATNA: With students getting freedom to use WhatsApp and different videoconferencing applications for online studies due to Covid-19 pandemic, the state police’s Economic Offences Unit (EOU) has launched an awareness drive and targeted to involve thousands of school and college students as well as teachers in a bid to protect them from cybercrime.
EOU is the nodal agency for tackling cybercrime in the state. It is already running a large number of WhatsApp groups, christened ‘Cyber Senani’, with police officers and common people as their members. Contents are posted daily in these groups on specific topics in order to tackle cybercrime like duping, blackmailing, bullying and harassment via fake social media profiles, ATM and banking frauds, phishing and running fake job rackets using websites.
EOU ADG Jitendra Singh Gangwar said, “We will send e-posters and other digital contents to principals, teachers and students in a bid to create awareness against cybercrime.
Gangwar said two to three teachers from each educational institution would be made nodal officers of ‘Cyber Senani’ group. “The various Cyber Senani groups run by EOU have at least 2.2 lakh members,” he added.
The ADG said EOU’s e-posters, being released everyday on multiple topics, is aimed at making common people aware about dos and don’ts to avoid falling victim of cybercrime. “Local and simple language is used to spread awareness with attractive diagrams. Taglines like ‘think before you post’ and ‘comment with care’ are used in e-posters,” he said.
Gangwar said there are around 1,500 Cyber Senani WhatsApp groups in the state, linking around 1,400 police stations and outposts.