Deep Freeze protects against malware, but as it also lets threat mail senders easily erase their online activity details, cops want cyber cafes to throw it out
Deep Freeze protects against malware, but as it also lets threat mail senders easily erase their online activity details, cops want cyber cafes to throw it out
After the German Bakery blast, the police had received an email warning of more terror attacks, it is learnt. They made an attempt to trace the sender, but did not succeed ufffd the scent went cold at a cyber cafe in Aurangabad. The investigation team realised this was because the cafe had installed a software called Deep Freeze.
According to cyber experts, the software is installed in a most cyber cafes to secure computers from malware. But the flip side is that Deep Freeze is also a very handy software for criminals who want to wipe out details of their online activity ufffd they can do it with just a click.
Notices to cafes
"The police received the email warning about more attacks after the February 13 bomb blast at German Bakery in Koregaon Park, but investigations hit a wall as we could not get any more details even though we were able to trace the mail to a cyber cafe in Aurangabad," said a senior police cyber cell official, requesting anonymity.
Joint Commissioner of Police Rajendra Sonawane then issued a notice to city cyber cafe owners advising them against installing Deep Freeze. "We are first sending notices to cyber cafes. Later, the cyber cell will conduct random checks and a case will be filed against errant owners," said Police Inspector Sangita Shinde Alphonso.
Cyber crime expert R Narayanan said Deep Freeze was a software that restored previous settings. "It freezes the insulation to the point that every time you start the PC it will start from the freeze point, that is the point when Deep Freeze was installed," said Narayanan.
Cafe owners upset
Kishor Chandavarkar, treasurer of the cyber cafe association that has 660 cafe owners in the city as its members, said, "Why are they banning the software? In any case, whenever there is some untoward incident in the vicinity of the cafe, the police come to grill us. If the police want more information in a cyber offense, they can always get it from email service provider."
Rahul Pokle, president of the association, said, "We will always cooperate with the police, but they should understand our problem. If this software is not installed, unnecessary files get saved on the computer, affecting the speed of the machine."
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