DailyPost 1880
TECHNICAL EXPERTISE – CAN WE LIVE WITHOUT IT?
The roller coaster ride of technology has engulfed us for a very long time and if we go by our capability to learn and be an expert hand on, at least the people who are mandated by law and profession to deliver, that would be a yeoman service to the nation. The country is bleeding because of the lack of knowledge and it is being seen all around. The superpower dream and even just the capability to be reckoned with in this world is dependent on it. As if things were not bad before COVID-19, the pandemic enabled digital transformation has put us in the middle of all what is bad, ugly and not understandable and we don’t know where to go.
If no one understands and everybody starts behaving as if they know, then the mess keeps on becoming messier. So far, at least for the last two decades we have behaved as if we have been learning and we are in know of things, primarily proving it through speeches professional and political and by the ultimate tool of power point presentation. I scratch your and you scratch mine and the world of excellence has been woven like a castle in the air. Rewards, awards and recognition showered on the ones who can flaunt their skills, even if they barely have any. The rigor of learning is totally different and that too at being at national level, with a demonstrated capability to deliver.
We have been amongst the first to have an Information Technology Act and till today we keep on having familiarization programs on this law and the basics of cyber-crime investigation. Cybercrime investigation is supposed to be one bandwagon which can be learnt and mastered as one. The technical complexities of each technology and the ecosystem and ever changing landscape can keep even the best on their toes. Once it hits you realize what has actually hit you. And we have dime a dozen cases all around, from private individuals to investigative agencies being given a go by. Simple technical hoodwinking has taken even a few police officers by surprise. The general approach is either superficial dealing or evading the technology altogether.
For long Call Data Record analysis was the be all and end all of all tech investigation. Our dealing of the social media, from every angle gives a serious feeling that the hands-on expertise is missing, otherwise the results would have been different. The intermediary rules have come into vogue now, how will that happen with the lack of technical skills? Where will the social media deluge take us to? It is already ripping apart the fabric of this nation. Demonstrated expertise in data protection and privacy shows our incapability to handle this fundamental right. Where will the experts come from, have we made efforts to create them and validate their capabilities. And now it is raining cryptocurrencies all over, from hacking to crypto exchanges to procurement to what not. Blockchain and crypto has been there for long, we are not discovering it now that we are in its whirlpool. FBI investigated Silkroad in 2013, the first major drugs, darknet and bitcoin investigation. In 2015 former federal agents were charged with Bitcoin money laundering and wire fraud. We are in India in 2021.
TECHNICALLY BEING HANDS ON AND LEARNING FROM LESSONS FROM ACROSS OUR BOUNDARIES CAN BE A GREAT BEGINNING.
Sanjay Sahay