With the rising usage of technology and the ensuing diversification of cyberspace, cybercrime has multiplied. Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM) in collaboration with IEMLabs and supported by the Cyber Security Centre of Excellence, West Bengal organized a seminar at IEM, Kolkata, on Cyber Awareness and Hygiene for students to commemorate Cyber Security Awareness Month. The major goal of this seminar was to increase student awareness of cybercrime and good online behavior.

Prof. Dr. Satyajit Chakrabarti, Director, IEM Kolkata, Sanjay Kumar Das, Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology & Electronics, Government West Bengal, Bidit Mondal, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Police Directorate, West Bengal Police, Nirupam Chaudhuri, Regional Director – East, NASSCOM, and Mr. Hrithik Lall, Chief Technical Officer, IEMLabs, addressed the seminar.

Some of the IEM projects include:

• Cyberpolice Suite
• Reaver
• XSS Protection with deep learning
• PEN Testing Suite
• Bug detection tool
• Android 12 Backdoor

Due to the rise in cybercrimes, there is an urgent need to address this issue. Everyone, but especially students, should adopt a strategy of cyber hygiene that involves prevention by ingraining the habit of taking basic care of ICT equipment at regular intervals. These were the topics that this seminar attempted to cover.

The seminar’s main goal was to increase the student’s knowledge of safety and security to prevent cyberbullying. Students must refrain from obtaining loans through shady apps that are not RBI-registered. The negative effects of downloading games or cracked software from unreliable websites. Unknown senders’ promotional emails, texts, or links shouldn’t be clicked.

The seminar witnessed the participation of 350+ students.

Sanjay Kumar Das, Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology and Electronics, Govt. of West Bengal organized a Quiz Contest among the students on Cyber Awareness. The winners were awarded goodies.

With such awareness sessions, young people can be made aware of cyber crimes and they will not become victims of cybercriminals.

Priyanka Dutta