World needs greater cooperation from security agencies on cybercrime: Doval

As cyberspace has no sovereignty or barriers, security organisations around the world need to work with greater cooperation to support law enforcement agencies, said Ajit Doval, national security advisor to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Speaking at the fifth Global Conference on Cyberspace here, he said that cyberspace provided global connectivity but "also provides connectivity to people who want to subvert the minds and hearts of the young generation and take to a certain path of thinking".

Cybercrime, he said, had never happened before in the globe. Cyberspace's speed of expansion was difficult to grasp. Legal and legislative support to tackle cybercrime is needed, more so as there's no one solution. "Anybody who can get a computer and get connected to the cyberspace is a stakeholder," Doval said.

He said that India would have 600 million internet users by next year and probably much more in the coming years.

Swift coordination was needed between countries for information exchange, identifying of defaulters and support to law enforcement agencies. The situation would get compounded as the world gets into domains such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and the internet of things.

Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, said, "We have got to, right now, think of structures, systems, methodologies, inter-operability, governmental support, multi-lateral and bilateral cooperation, to be able to cope and see that a great asset that has come to the world really remains."

He added, "No effort would be spared to ensure the highest priority is accorded to making Indian cyberspace absolutely safe for an average person to transact."