Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 4 (PTI) A Cyber ??Crime Investigation Division, the first of its kind in the country, will soon be formed in the police department to coordinate cyber investigations and ensure the services of experts, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said here on Saturday.

Vijayan was speaking at the concluding session of 'Kerala Police Hack-P2021', an online hackathon to create a software for police to help the department effectively intervene on the Dark Web.

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"A Cyber ??Crime Investigation Division will soon be formed in the police department to coordinate cyber investigations and ensure the services of experts. With this, Kerala Police will be the first police force in India to have such a technical unit," Vijayan said.

The Chief Minister also unveiled the hackathon software 'Grapnel 1.0', a software project designed to "unravel the mysteries of the Dark Web and to analyze crime".

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Vijayan said cybercrime can only be eradicated only if the public is made aware of it.

The 'Cyber ??Dome Medal of Excellence', the award for winners of the conference and the Chief Minister's Annual Trophy for the best police stations in the state were handed over during the event.

Thampanoor, Irinjalakuda and Kunnamangalam police stations were selected as the best police stations in the state last year.

Transport Minister Antony Raju, State Police Chief Anil Kant, ADGPs Manoj Abraham and Vijay S Sakhre, DIG P Prakash and others participated in the event.

The international conference was organized by the Cyber ??Dome under the Kerala Police department. This year's hackathon theme was 'Demystifying the Dark Web.'

The hackathon had received over 360 applications from experts across the world and after a two-stage screening, 26 candidates who excelled in technical/programming skills competed in the final stage.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)