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Narcotics Control Bureau Darkathon 2022 – INTRODUCTION
The rise in the extensive use of technology has also brought with it increase in cybercrimes. Cyberattacks and crimes have permeated almost every facet of society, and are growing in volume, velocity and sophistication with each passing day, defeating the best efforts of law enforcement agencies in India and across the world. The intersection between crimes and technology is more apparent today than ever before. Almost all crimes and potential crimes are facilitated by the internet, gadgets or technology in one form or the other; or at least have an investigative lead rooted in technology.
One of the most concerning facets of this change is the illicit trafficking in drugs and drug-related money laundering through the misuse of information and communication technologies, including Internet, darknet, anonymous and encrypted connections, messengers, electronic and virtual payment systems. According to the 2021 World Drug Report, about 74% of the darknet transactions, or about 90% of darknet sales, were drug related.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation and there are tell-a-tale signs about this. For e.g. The number of drug seizures from parcel or courier consignments increased by almost 250% in India after the outbreak of COVID-19 and a good number of them are linked to drug trafficking through darknet markets.
Further, digitalization of society and growing online retail and distribution chains will very likely lead to an upward trend in the misuse of darknet technology to aid drug trafficking.
Drug law enforcement agencies need to be ahead of the curve to counter and negate the challenges of technology advances that drug traffickers take advantage of. The help and aid of the public can go a long way in technically equipping agencies like NCB tackle the menace of drug trafficking. Keeping these in mind, NCB has decided to organize a hackathon that can tap into the high-quality technical pool of the country to find effective solutions to unravel the anonymity of darknet markets: The Darkathon.
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Problem Statement
Evaluation process
Phase 1 – Ideathon and POC Submission: The participants need to register themselves either as a team of maximum three individuals or as a single members. During registration the participants need to give a one paragraph (not more than 200 words) description of their proposed solution along with a detailed PowerPoint presentation (not more than 10 slides) against the selected problem statement. The participants can also include videos, images and screenshots in the presentation.
Phase 2 – Shortlisting: Post the closure of registrations, the evaluation committee will shortlist top 30 entries for the next round.
Phase 3 – Grand Finale (Presentation Round): The Grand Finale will be hosted as a presentation round. The shortlisted participants need to present their ideas to the jury in the form of presentation, videos and prototype. The presentation round will be of 15 minutes with 10 minutes of presentation and 5 minutes of Q&A.
Schedule
15th February 2022
Launch of the Competition
15th February 2022
Registration Starts
30th April 2022
Registration Closes
TBA
Evaluation/Shortlisting
TBA
Grand Finale
TBA
Awards Ceremony
