The implications of the 5G roll-out for law enforcement
For Mains
5G in India:
- Reports suggest that the government will launch 5G at the inauguration of the India Mobile Congress on September 29.
How 5G can help law enforcement:
- 5G promises to transmit clearer images, so its adoption could ensure that the performance of police devices such as body cams, facial recognition technology, automatic number-plate recognition, drones, and CCTVs can be perfected.
- The increased storage capacity promised by 5G will allow the streamlining of investigation methods of the police.
- 5G will also allow rapid and secure communication among different departments of law enforcement as well as between civilians and emergency responders.
- 5G will allow the police to remotely access and analyse crime data and information from other infrastructure such as traffic lights.
Concerns about 5G:
- Even if law enforcement agencies get access to secure data from telecom operators, they will still need tools to access this data.
- This becomes problematic since most police systems are outdated and may not be compatible with 5G.
- Another major concern is cyber security since deploying 5G when we have a shaky cyber security foundation is highly problematic.
5G threat to Law Enforcement:
- 5G is a software-defined digital routing which makes it susceptible to cyber threats such as botnet attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) overloads.
- 5G lacks end-to-end encryption which allows hackers to plot their attacks more precisely and perpetrate cybercrimes by hacking into systems or disseminating illegal content.
- Criminal groups may be able to easily coordinate DDoS onslaughts due to the ability to have real-time communication between multiple criminal groups.
- Terrorists, too, could also take advantage of 5G since the high speed would allow them to execute attacks more rapidly and precisely.
What needs to be done:
- Police need to be trained to recognise new 5G-enabled crimes and how to track the evidence.
- Training programmes focusing on such crimes must be developed including identifying potential scenarios for new types of crimes and their prevention.
- The government and telecom companies should set up a 5G crime monitoring task force to monitor and identify new crimes and develop countermeasures.
- Create regulations for effective identification, apprehension and conviction of those who use 5G technology to commit crimes.
SOURCE: THE HINDU
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