Guwahati: Assam police have added more teeth to its capability to combat the emerging cyber threats with the commissioning of a cyberdome and a digital investigation and technical analysis centre here on Saturday.

Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated both the facilities at the headquarters of the special branch of Assam police at Kahilipara here.

Sonowal hoped that these facilities will go a long way in securing the cyber space. He appealed to the people to use social media to make friends and not to spread hateful or inflammatory messages and commit crimes.

The cyberdome is a centre of excellence for Assam police to meet long-term security challenges in the digital arena and for capacity building of police personnel and creating basic cyber awareness among general population.

The facility will engage in Internet monitoring, technical intelligence collection, cyber forensics, Skype call analysis, counter cyber terrorism, dark net exploring, investigation of crimes related to the social media, big data analytics and cyber security of the digital Infrastructure.

The cyberdome is expected to enable sleuths to obtain vital leads in cases of cyber-related offences using advanced technologies in the field of information, communication and technology.

Both the cyberdome and the digital centre were set up with the help of the National Technical Research Organisation, a premier technical intelligence agency of the Centre.

The state-of-the-art facility comprises a cyber forensics lab equipped with high-end tools, and will provide training in advanced digital investigations to police personnel besides social media monitoring and digital forensics.

Assam is the second state after Haryana to have such a laboratory.

Special director-general of police (special branch) Pallab Bhattacharya said the research and development wing of the cyberdome project will take up futuristic and need-based IT projects for use in policing.

Director-general of police Kuladhar Saikia said there is a flip side to technology, which was seen in the wake of the Karbi Anglong lynching when social media was misused to spread hate in a bid to disrupt communal harmony.