Dinesh Kamath's news 'Cyber Safety Week finale draws thousands' that was published in Newsband

Cyber Safety Week finale draws thousands

Make Cyber Safety an essential Subject in Schools and Colleges, says Bollywood actor R Mahadevan

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The Cyber Safety Week launched by the Navi Mumbai Police department in association with State Bank of India with support by Heart Foundation & Pyramid Cyber Security & Forensics culminated on 19th December 2015 at the D Y Patil Auditorium where R Mahadevan, Bollywood Actor, was the Chief Guest alongwith Mr. Nandakumar Saravade.

A variety of seminars on data security, IPR, social media, cyber terrorism, digital evidence search & seizure, Banking and Financial Crime and digital privacy, drawing competitions with CYBER SAFE – BE AWARE BE SECURE as theme of this year, was organized in different nodes of Navi Mumbai throughout the week.

The program started with performance of schools and college children on the lines of Cyber Safety which included dances and skits choreographed Elevate India Academy.

Addressing the gathering, Chief Guest, R Mahadevan said “Rural villages have also got access to social media as I regularly get messages about my films.” He added “Social Media is being used rampantly to dupe people especially the youth and I appeal to the Education department to make Cyber Safety an essential subject in schools and colleges.”

The other dignitaries were Shri. Prabhat Ranjan Commissioner Of Police Navi Mumbai, Addl. CP Vijay Chauhan, Shri. Kajal Ghose CGM (Executive Support System) SBI and Speakers were Adv. Vaishali Bhagwat & Nandakumar Saravade. The other speakers throughout the week were Roshan Bangera, Suresh Menon and MallikeArjun.

“I would want to work out a strategy wherein we could conduct awareness programs in schools and colleges so that the youth would be forewarned and make themselves aware and secure” said Prabhat Ranjan.

“The week enabled us to interact with children, youth, ladies, societies, corporates and senior citizens and encouraged them to be cautious with regard to Cyber crimes and how it can be avoided” said Dilip Sawant, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Police Inspector Mrs. Pratibha Shendge, Cyber Crime Cell In Charge said, “It was heartening to see the overwhelming response that our programmes and seminars received throughout the week.”

“I am satisfied with the way the program went but we have still miles to go before we can really educate one and all so that they would be safe and secure from Cyber crime” said Sangeeta Alphonso, Senior Police Inspector, Nerul Police Station and Cyber Law Expert.

‘It is better to make the kids understand why they need to draw a line somewhere,” said Dr. Jayakar Ellis, President, Heart Foundation, which along with city police, is planning to conduct training programmes for the school children from class VIII onwards teaching them about the ‘Dos’ and ‘Don’ts’ of cyber safety alongwith the Navi Mumbai Police in the future.