Infotoons spread a good word on cyber safe girls

MANGALURU: Ananth Prabhu, cyber security expert who is the adviser for Vikas Group of Institutions, and Vivek Shetty, an entrepreneur and social activist from Mangaluru, have brought out the e-booklet, ‘Cyber Safe Girl — Beti Ko Bachao, Cyber Crime Se’, which comprises 15 infotoons to ensure online safety of girls.
It focuses on how girls can fall prey at mobile recharge shops, debit card cloning, SMS spoofing, call spoofing, ransomware, cyberstalking, picture morphing, profile hacking, online games, job call letter, dating websites, camera hacking and social trolling.
Ananth Prabhu said while the e-book is available on www.cybresafegirl.com, the hard copy was recently distributed to girls at Roshni Nilaya School of Social Work in the presence of Mangaluru City DCP (Crime) Uma Prashanth.
At the workshop, students will attend talks by ADGP Sanjay Sahay as well as Ananth Prabhu, following which each girl will visit five houses and enlighten girls there on how to be cyber safe. “We’re building a network of cybersafe girls. Since the infotoons are currently in black & white, at the workshop, students will be given sketch pens and asked to colour them. The best posters will be selected and a colour edition of the e-book will be released by March-end,” Prabhu said.
The work has been recognised by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing and the Information Security Education and Awareness of the government and will be distributed among CBSE schools. About 10,000 copies are being printed and distributed free to girls in Dakshina Kannada in the first phase and very soon they will reach other districts too.
About 75,000 downloads of the e-book have taken place.
The work has been supported by Hanumantharaya DCP (Law & Order) Mangaluru City and senior IPS officials including Sanjay Sahay, Murugan, Arun Chakravarthy, Roopa D, Vedamurthi CB and other officers including Uma Prashanth, Reena Suvarna, Yogesh Kumar and Savithra Teja. Others who helped in the work include Prashanth Jhala (cyberlaw consultant and cybercrime investigator), Anudeep Karkera (artist), Naga Basava (SEO expert) and Waseem Shan (web developer).