New Delhi: The use of smart phones with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feather phones by terrorists and criminal elements is becoming a cause of concern for the security establishment in the country.
These phones were enabling terrorists as well as rumour-mongers to communicate with one another faster, leading to incidents like mass exodus of people of the northeast from different parts of the country as witnessed in the last communal and ethnic riots in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) area, National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon said in New Delhi on Monday evening at a seminar on cyber crime.
“We see terrorist groups using the same technology (mobiles or smart phones) for recruitment, for communication and, even though with much less success so far, as a weapon,” Menon said. The same technology had also been used for mobilization and social protests by groups, including Aam Aadmi Party in India, and protesters during the ‘Arab Spring’.
There is not much of a problem if such mediums were used for protests like in the case of Damini, but the NSA was concerned over events like mass exodus of people belonging to the Northeast from other parts of the country. Creation of fear psychosis among certain sections of the people belonging to one region or community could create havoc, he felt.
In an apparent reference to the exodus that had taken place from south India two years ago during the BTC riots, he said the phone devices had been used as an instrument to spread “lies and rumours.” Even in India, people had to leave their homes in large numbers due to such activities.
The NSA said cyber security was one of the biggest challenges and India had “some expertise and talent which suits our style of functioning. Cyber security is now no longer just a question of securing our data on the internet or the security of our communications,” he said.
Early smartphones typically combined the features of a mobile phone with those of another popular consumer device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), a media player, a digital camera, or a GPS navigation unit. Modern smartphones includes all of those features plus the features of a touch screen computer, including web browsing, Wi-Fi, and 3rd-party apps and accessories.