Terror has a new face - the harmless computer. Whether informing media about their bloodletting ''achievements'' or communicating amongst their terrorist brethren, cyberspace has become the mode of communication for the modern terrorist. And the security forces of the country, not quite technology savvy, are finding it hard to keep track of such subversive elements.

In a chilling reminder of how technology has been usurped for nefarious ends, the group claiming responisibility for the recent Ahmedabad blasts that killed scores and left hundreds maimed, Indian Mujahideen, had sent chilling information to the media regarding the blasts only moments before they occurred. Their mode of communication - an email sent from a hacked computer in Navi Mumbai.

This was not the first time that the email has been used to claim responsibility for terrorist activities. Indian Mujahideen had used a cyber cafe in Ghaziabad to send an email claiming responsibility for the serial blasts that rocked Jaipur in May this year. In November last year, terrorists had used a cyber cafe in Delhi to send an email warning of an attack on lawyers minutes before bombs went off in court premises in Lucknow, Varanasi and Faizabad.

All this has brought cyber cafes under the scanner, and rightly so. Unlike personal Internet connections that are given out only after submission of relevant documents and their scrutiny, just about anybody can walk into a cyber café and start typing. The fact that most cyber cafe owners continue to turn a blind eye to a police directive that had made it mandatory for all to produce a photo identification proof before being allowed to use the facilities have enabled terrorists to exploit cyberspace for their needs.

The law also requires cyber cafe owners to maintain a detailed record of all customers, including name, address, contact number, age, gender, signing in and signing out timings, as well as the number of computers used. With this rarely being put to practice there are growing instances of terrorists using cyber cafes to plan and co-ordinate terror strikes.

To add to the menace, many of these cyber cafes are unauthorised. In fact, the recent hoax email that threatened bomb blasts in several prominent Kolkata locations was found to have been sent from one such illegal establishment in the Salt Lake township on the outskirts of the city.

Kaushik Basu, the son of the owner of the cafe, was arrested within hours. It was only during investigation that the cops learnt that the cyber cafe does not have a licence. Now, the authorities have woken up to the fact that there are more than 150 such illegal establishments in the vicinity, which in the current context, pose a threat to national security.

Now, the police authorities of different states like West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have already started sweeping drives to ensure that the rules governing cyber cafes are strictly being enforced. Their respective cyber crime cells have also been placed on high alert.

Gujarat, which bore the brunt of the recent terror attacks, has gone a step further. Vadodara police commissioner Rakesh Asthana has issued a notification that requires cyber cafe owners to register themselves with the licensing branch of police department within the next one month.

According to the notification, cyber cafe owners will have to give an undertaking on a Rs100 stamp paper for getting registered. The owner will have to produce sufficient identity proof during registration procedure. Each internet user will have to produce identity proof and provide name, address and e-mail IDs at the cafe. In case, a user does not comply with proper identity proof then the cyber cafe administrator will have to take the user's photo on a web-cam before allowing him to surf.

The cyber cafe owners will have to pay Rs500 per annum as registration fee and renewal fee of Rs250 every two years. Not wanting to take any chance, Asthana has asked the cyber cafe owners to store the information regarding internet browser, website history, internet cookies, downloads and proxy logs of the last six months.

Also, the register having information of users and cafe employees should be preserved for at least three years. The owners will have to keep records of internet telephone users too. With terror becoming an all too common occurrence, there's no place for complacency.