CHENNAI: Coimbatore Police are ready to join Information Technology students specializing in artificial intelligence and ethical hacking to investigate cybercrimes.

A senior officer told IANS it was a move intended to seek advice from students who have a good knowledge of cybercrimes and gain their support to prevent such offences.

The Coimbatore Police has also launched an initiative to raise awareness of cybercrime among students, especially college students, who are active on social media and other apps prone to such crimes.

A senior officer said: “Students studying computer science, software courses and application development courses will have knowledge of cybercrimes and be able to advise the police on how to identify those involved in these crimes. .”

Detectives have a fully-fledged cybercrime unit, but senior officers believe that hiring bright young minds with a solid grasp of the latest trends in computer software and technology would be an added advantage for the department.

The police also plan to create a “Cyber ​​Club” which includes two staff members and students from each college in the city. These ‘Cyber ​​Clubs’ will be used to create cyber awareness among students and common people and how to stay away from modern cyber crimes involving financial embezzlement, misuse of photographs, altered photos and forgery calls like paying bills online and thus scamming money from bank accounts.

This initiative is being monitored by the Cybercrime Wing of the Tamil Nadu Police and if the association with the students proves useful, the project will be rolled out statewide.

A senior Cyber ​​Cell officer in Tamil Nadu told IANS, “After following the Coimbatore Police project, if the students we hire show proper results, we plan to expand it to all the state”.