Power and responsibility

With great power comes great responsibility—true for this millennium, in more ways than one. The internet, in modern times, has possibly equipped the common man with the most power over objects even beyond his immediate surroundings. The click of a button now places the universe on the tip of the finger. Digitalisation has become so rampant that in a developing nation like India too, the government is proactively advocating the use of the internet, even among the rural households who had so forth been bereft of most of the development unfolding in the outside world. With digitalisation of personal information on the World Wide Web, along with instant payment and subsequent bank account details becoming privy to public knowledge, the threat to individual security is paramount in today's society. To battle this, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance has come up with a cybercrime cover for individuals, which was so forth amiss, to protect comfort and privacy among internet and e-commerce users. "A couple of decades ago, the biggest risk was having your pocket picked. In this day and age covers against pickpockets do not help when the bigger risk is of cybercrime," said Tapan Singhel, MD & CEO of the firm. The Internet has truly been a revolution that has entirely altered the lifestyle of the present generation. Queues for payments, long waits at banks and carrying bundles of notes are now a thing of the past, as a click of the finger carries the magic to fulfil almost every need, instantly. It works the same way for criminals too; no longer do they wait in the sun to knick the briefcase of an absent-minded office-goer. From the comfort of their AC and a click of their finger, your bank account can easily become theirs. The prevalence of cybercrime is not a mystery for anyone. There are repeated stories of stolen debit pins and unaccounted credit card bills. Cyber cover, so forth, had been available only for businesses; in a first, it is now going to be accessible to common citizens too. Moving ahead of battling just theft, the insurance promises to also cover compensation costs of legal defence in case of hacking and subsequent social media misuse and also in the events of stalking. A welcome move, as the many millions of vulnerable users on the internet, are often hawked by thousands of predators waiting to have a go at the easiest user; it highlights that a boon, thus, will always surface clutching the hands of its pitfall. As digitalisation is further propagated by the Government of India, the protection of its naïve, digital users also becomes paramount. Digital protection today is probably as important a deliberation as national security.