The Cyber Crime Unit of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has increased the number of Cyber Crime Reporting Centres from 5 to 15.
The agency is now looking to further increase the strength of its investigators to meet the growing challenge of cyber complaints in Pakistan.
In order to achieve this target, FIA is planning to equip all the Cyber Crime Reporting Centers with state-of-art digital forensic capabilities.
These complaint centers will have the capability to conduct forensic analysis of laptops, computers, mobile, iPad etc.
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The agency has also proposed to make some amendments to the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act (PECA) 2016, as some of its clauses, according to an FIA official, are “impeding the effective investigation and successful prosecution.”
“FIA has neither preventive mandate nor legal monitoring of cybercrimes, but post crime mandate, resulting in obstruction in controlling cybercrimes”, officials added.
FIA, as of now, only has investigation power and cannot initiate an inquiry on its own unless it receives a complaint from an individual and or any organization.
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However, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has opposed further amendments in Cyber Crime Bill 2016, saying that no further amendments with regard to blocking/removal of unlawful online content are required.
It is pertinent to mention here that unlike many South Asian and Gulf countries, Pakistan does not have access to cybercrime data, due to the absence of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with the US where the data resides.
