The fastest city of India, Mumbai, is all set to take a giant
technological leap if the BMC has its way. Mumbai will soon be the
country's first wi-fi enabled city, which means wireless Internet in
any part of the metropolis.
This Rs
300-crore public-private partnership will involve the civic body
shouldering the responsibility of erecting towers across the city,
while the service providers will pool in the funds. Additional
Municipal Commissioner, BMC, Anil Diggikar said, “We will offer
Internet services to the residents at affordable costs.” But questions
are already being raised on the advisability of this technology leap.
Experts warn extended wi-fi connectivity could lead to an exponential
growth in cyber crimes.
A case in point is
the terror e-mail sent through a hacked wi-fi connection in Navi Mumbai
just minutes before the serial blasts in Ahmedabad. Meanwhile, the
Anti-Terrorist Squad of the Mumbai Police has admitted that they are
concerned about the implementation of the project. “We will get in
touch with the BMC regarding the security issues concerning the wi-fi
project,” ATS chief in Maharashtra Hemant Karkare said.
Supporting
the ATS concerns are various cyber experts who feel that BMC first
needs to plug loopholes regarding anonymity that a wi-fi network
offers. Cyber crime expert Vijay Mukhi said, “We need to take certain
steps to ensure anonymity. One will have to register with BMC at two
levels. Registration of name so that BMC would know who the person is
and also register the laptop which has unique machine address. If one
changes his machine then he should be required to register again to log
in.” Wireless Fidelity would revolutionise Internet connectivity in
Mumbai, but terrorists could use the same apparatus with consummate
ease to plot their sinister designs across the country. It seems BMC
has a lot of rethinking to do before they go ahead with this plan.
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