Click to play videoMumbai: It’s a city on the fast lane and 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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