THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a bid to enhance decentralised monitoring of dark web, the police have decided to allow use of ‘grapnel’ — a tool it developed to trawl data from the underbelly of internet — in all the 20 police districts in the state. Dark web is a part of the internet that can be accessed only using encrypted software and protocols.
Until now, ‘grapnel’ was allowed to be used only in the cyber division located in the police headquarters.
The new decision will see it being used in cyber stations in all the police districts. Each police district has a cyber station that was formed to tackle rising cyber offences, including those committed via the dark web.
Sources said the move to extend the use of ‘grapnel’ was taken to enhance surveillance of dark web, which is increasingly being used for committing grave crimes, including narcotic trafficking, cyber financial scams, money laundering, child abuse and identity theft. According to sources, another objective behind the decision is to enhance the user base of the tool so that its capacity can be enriched.
Grapnel tool to help purge malicious dark web content
“As part of capacity building, we have decided to use the tool in all the districts. Cyber sleuths will be able to familiarise with its working and can master it in due time. By sustained use, we will also be able to judge its efficiency. The whole exercise will also help purge malicious content from the dark web,” said a senior police officer.
‘Grapnel’ works by collecting data from websites, chat rooms and other sources that exist in the dark web. The data is monitored and indexed and then subjected to analysis using artificial intelligence.
As the first step, the ‘grapnel’ tool was released to several cyber crime stations on Tuesday with an authorisation for using it. Grapnel was developed in-house by the Cyberdome with assistance from the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF).
Another reason behind diffusion of the technology is the government’s decision to curb drug trafficking through encrypted cyber platforms. The cyber police have been monitoring dark web for this purpose after identifying that drug mafia are engaged in drug trafficking via encrypted sites. The state cyber sleuths had earlier identified about 25 such people who thrived under anonymity.
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