Continuing Legal Education In India

Legal lifelong learning has a very important objective. It keeps on updating the knowledge of those involved in legal or allied fields. Continuous updating ones skills and knowledge is very essential to keep an edge over others.

This is also important in the dynamic legal field through which the legal profession is passing through. Fields like cyber law, cyber forensics, etc were not available a decade before but they must be learnt by all those related to legal field.

Legal education has now become techno legal where a legal professional must be aware of both technical as well as legal fields. However, there is a dearth of techno legal institutions that provide legal lifelong learning. One such institution that provides techno legal lifelong learning (TLLL) is managed by Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB).

At the same time there is also a dire need to have institutions that can provide good continuing legal education in India (CLE in India). PTLB covers both traditional legal fields as well as contemporary techno legal fields.

There is an urgent need to bring suitable legal educational reforms in India. The present legal education in India is not up to the mark. Further, the legal education in India is also shying away in using e-learning and online learning to expand the legal education base.

Law Minister Veerappa Moily and bar Council of India (BCI) must take some immediate and pro active role in the direction of legal education in India in general and CLE/LLLE in particular.

Cyber Forensics Training Courses In India

Cyber forensics is a highly specialised field that required good amount of techno legal training. It requires both technical as well as legal acumen and a good understanding of both aspects can be beneficial.

In India there are very few good cyber forensic research and training institutions. Further, there is just a single techno legal cyber forensics training institution (TLCFTI) in India. The same is managed by Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB), India’s premier techno legal institution and one of the best in the world.

The cyber forensics training by PTLB is a great blend of the concepts like cyber law and cyber forensics. It provides a holistic view of cyber law, cyber crimes, cyber forensics and their litigation aspects.

The best part is that this training is provided through e-learning method so any person residing in any part of the world can avail this training.

All those who are interested in having a great career in cyber law or cyber forensics must essential undergo training from PTLB as that is the best techno legal training in the world. Since the seats are limited, go get a seat as soon as possible.

Cyber Security In India Needs Rejuvenation

Cyber security in India needs good political, public and policy support. Issues like cyber law, cyber terrorism, cyber crimes, cyber espionage, cyber war, etc have been long neglected by India. This is detrimental to national security of India and internal security of India.

Strategic information plays a crucial role in launching an attack as well as preventing the same. Similarly, sensitive information in the hands of enemy, cyber terrorists, etc may also not be good for India.

Critical ICT infrastructure protection (CIIP) in India also necessitates that India must pay enough attention to cyber security issues. The Home Ministry, India is stressing too much upon issues like diluting encryption standards of Blackberry, a product of research in motion, e-surveillance of e-mails, telephone tapping capabilities, national intelligence grid (Natgrid), etc.

All these projects would prove to be landmines for India in the absence of proper laws and effective cyber security. Take the example of unique identification project of India (UID Project of India) or Aadhar project of India. It is managed by Nandan Nilekani as the chairman of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI). It would collect crucial biometric information and other details of Indians without any law that protects it from illegal data thefts, privacy breaches, etc. If such a crucial database is targeted by cyber criminals, much worst can happen.

According to Praveen Dalal, CEO of the exclusive techno legal cyber security research and training centre of India (CSRTCI) and managing partner of Perry4Law, India is not yet prepared for cyber threats. In fact, projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc are going to create more trouble than solution in the absence of proper laws and effective cyber security, says Dalal.

It seems India has misplaced its priorities and is engaging in unproductive and unconstitutional projects that are neither viable nor legal. Indian government must address these issues as soon as possible in the larger interest of India.

Cyber Terrorism In India Is A Big Security Threat

Cyber terrorism in India is no more a fictional idea but is a reality. Although there is no clear cut definition of cyber terrorism yet use of information and communication technology (ICT) by terrorists is beyond any dispute or doubt.

India has been consistently lax regarding enacting strong cyber laws and ensuring good cyber security. As a result crucial governmental computer systems have been targeted by cyber criminals throughout the world. Many sensitive documents have been stolen in this manner but India has not taken enough steps to either strengthen its cyber law or effectuating its cyber security.

As a result cyber crimes in India are increasing at an alarming rate. Even the information technology act 2000 of India carries a single provision regarding cyber terrorism. It is surprising how such a crucial issue has been so indifferently dealt with by Indian government by a single provision.

A special attention must be given to cyber security of defence forces installations as they usually carry sensitive information. These installations must be frequently tested for cyber security breaches as compared to other normal and civil computer systems.

India need to gather popular public support as well as the political will to meet the objectives of cyber security and to prevent cyber terrorism and cyber attacks. Cyber security is a collective responsibility and India as a whole must address this issue with a sound cyber security policy.

Cyber Forensics Training Courses In India

Cyber forensics has become an important career option. However, cyber forensics is not easy to learn and even tougher to apply. The real cause for lack of trained cyber forensics professionals is the fact that cyber forensics educational and training institutions have been opened in very corner of the world. However, a majority of them are just providing diplomas and degree without any practical training.

The first thing a cyber forensics aspirant must keep in mind is the fact that cyber forensics is all practical and almost not at all theoretical. Although theory is of paramount importance to understand the academic concepts yet mere theory is of no use till it is actually implemented.

Further, any good cyber forensics training must essentially be techno legal in nature. The job of any training course must be to develop skill of the aspirants and not to fill their minds with academic concepts.

Fortunately, Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) is one such premier institution that provides practical cyber forensics training in India and worldwide. It provides cyber forensics training in an online environment. It also provides techno legal trainings in other fields like cyber law, cyber security, online dispute resolution, e-courts, etc.

These training courses have been specially made for lawyers, judges, police officers, corporate executives, law graduates, dispute resolution professionals, cyber security professionals, etc. So grab a seat before they are gone.

Cyber Crimes Are Increasing In India

Cyber crimes in India are increasing at an alarming rate and Indian government and department of information technology (DIT), India are doing nothing in this regard. In fact, the DIT proposed very weak, ineffective and counter productive amendments to the already weak cyber law of India in the past.

The information technology amendment act 2008 (IT Act 2008) amended the information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000) and made it a base for committing various cyber crimes openly.

According to Praveen Dalal, the leading techno legal experts of India, India has been experiencing an increase in cyber crimes like hacking, spamming, phishing, etc due to many factors. The first and foremost factor among them is the lack of an effective and stringent cyber crime law in India.

The cyber law in India is not effective instead it is counterproductive. India is the only country in the world that has the provision of bail in cyber crime cases. It means even if a person commits cyber crimes like phishing, hacking or any similar cyber crime or contravention and is somehow caught by the Police force, he would be released on bail as a matter of right. This provision of cyber crime has made India a safe place for cyber criminals, warn Dalal.

Besides, there is a lack of adequate cyber forensics and cyber security capabilities in India that helps in the growth of cyber crimes. Irrespective what the government of India and DIT say, the position is really worrisome.

Time has come for the Indian government to amend the IT Act 2000 so that cyber criminals can not only be caught by the police but also get severe punishment.

Public Information Infrastructure In India

Sam Pitroda is a name that does not require any introduction. He is the one who was responsible for telecom revolution in India. Now Sam is in the process of bringing another informational revolution.

He intends to make data in the public domain available to around 1.2 billion citizens. To achieve the same he plans to create a public information infrastructure running through kiosks in cities and 2.5 lakh Bharat Nirman e-centres in 6 lakh villages.

With a massive population in India and general lack of political will to achieve an ambitious project like this, he has to cover a long road. The task is really challenging and if accomplished would go a long way in creating an informed citizenry in India.

India’s existing information framework is scattered, with each state establishing its own data centre for automating land records, transport and municipal applications, among others. The proposed initiative plans to host all software applications on a cloud (internet), increasing efficiency and speed as well as slashing costs. However, techno legal experts like Praveen Dalal believe that India is still not ready for cloud computing and software as a service (SASS).

According to Praveen Dalal India has a very weak cyber security and no dedicated privacy law. Even there is no dedicated data protection law in India. The data of end users and governmental agencies is not safe in the absence of these essential regulations that the government of India is willingly not interested in enacting.

There is no doubt about the utility of the proposed project of Sam Pitroda. There is neither a single point for Indian citizens to get information nor there is a consolidation of the efforts of various States. Even duplication of data can be avoided and better results can be produced at a single point, says Praveen Dalal.

It would be a good idea if India formulates a good cyber security policy and effective privacy and data protection laws so that the project by Sam Pitroda can successfully see light of the day, suggests Praveen Dalal.

Sam Pitroda has submitted the blueprint to the PM and a panel comprising high-ranking officials has been established to steer the project. The government will fund this project with an estimated cost of Rs 15,000 crore. The project will provide a platform for sourcing of ideas from citizens, feedback and evaluation of government schemes.

Domain Name Dispute Resolution In India

Domain name has become a necessity these days. Whether it is a multi national company or a small business, all of them needs domain name. This is primarily due to the fact that web presence is a must these days.

This necessity has given rise to an evil practice known as cyber squatting. Cyber squatting is the practice of registering a domain name of well known person, institution or company in the hope that the same may be resold on higher prices to the stakeholder.

In India we do not have a law regarding cyber squatting and the same is dealt with either under the trademarks act 1999 or the torts law. That is why we need an effective and alternative dispute resolution mechanism for domain names.

India has many good arbitrators and domain name dispute resolving experts. India also has ad hoc arbitrators and institutionalised arbitration. India also has the specialised alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and online disputer resolution (ODR) Centre.

If your matter or dispute falls under highly technical field like cyber law, cyber forensics, cyber security, etc, even the same can be effectively and professionally handled in India. India has the exclusive techno legal ODR services providing platform of the world.

However, India has to make its arbitration law more effective. India also has to take steps in the direction of making international commercial arbitration more effective in India. If India reforms some of the pressing needs of ADR and ODR, it can become a hub for international arbitration.

Legal Enablement Of Intelligence Agencies Of India Is required

Intelligence agencies and law enforcement machinery of India are working almost with no legal framework supporting their functioning. This is not only affecting the genuineness and credibility of such agencies and authorities but is also casting a great doubt about their impartiality.

For instance, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is under fire for the same reason and is considered to be a puppet in the hands of ruling government. This is bound to happen so long there is neither a legal framework nor accountability of the CBI to Parliament of India or to any statutory enactment. Why India abhors enactment of relevant and mandatory legislations is still a mystery to solve.

India is notoriously infamous for creating authorities and agencies without any legal sanction and framework. Surprisingly, a majority of them pertains to law enforcement and intelligence agencies like CBI, IB, RAW, etc.

Of course, we have illegal and unconstitutional projects like the unique identification project of India (UID Project of India) or Aadhar project of India and unconstitutional authorities like unique identification authority of India (UIDAI). Why Parliament of India is not conferring legitimacy and constitutionality upon these authorities is still not understandable.

Validity Of Electronic Legal Notices In India

With almost a decade of enactment of information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000) and almost five years since Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and CEO of the exclusive e-courts training and consultancy centre of India (ECTCCI) and of the world suggested the same, the Supreme Court of India has finally accepted the suggestion to send legal notices through e-mails.

The Supreme Court of India on Monday decided to experiment with email notices to respondents to cut the delay in the traditional method of serving notices. A bench comprising of Chief Justice of India S H Kapadia, Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar gave this order.

The bench also clarified that it is not making a new rule but providing for an additional mode for service of notices. The traditional method of notice sending is still kept intact.

The bench also realised that there may be some difficulties in implementing this initiative. It asked all the lawyers present in the court about putting in practice the serving of notice through emails, at least to start with in commercial matters.

This is a good step in the right direction especially after the failure of the e-courts project of India. Due to lack of political and judicial will and techno legal expertise, India is still waiting for the establishment of first e-court in India.

Now at least the Supreme Court of India has started covering the basic aspects related to establishment of e-judiciary in India.

Constitutional Analysis Of National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010

Aadhar project of India and the UIDAI are both operating without any law empowering them to act. This is strange as the Indian government has deemed it fit to confer extreme powers in the hands of an authority that does not exists in the eyes of law. Further, due the controversial nature of the work assigned to UIDAI, civil liberties violations are bound to arise in future. The Aadhar project must have been first supported by a law and thereafter only it should have been launched. Due to industrial lobbying and private profits consideration, the government of India has sacrificed the precious and sacrosanct human rights for considerations better known to it. This is the first and most comprehensive analysis of the National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 by Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law.

The National Identification Authority of India Bill 2010 (Bill) has been recently proposed by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). The Bill, if made a law, would be called National Identification Authority of India Act, 2010 (Act). Here are some of the salient features of the Bill:

(1) The Bill is still not a valid piece of legislation till it is approved by both the Houses of the Parliament, receives President’s assent and then finally notified in Official Gazette by the Government of India.

(2) The Bill is not a comprehensive one and neither has it intended to cover all the aspects of Aadhar project of India. The Bill’s main objective is to provide legitimacy to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) renamed as the National Identification Authority of India (NIDAI) and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

(3) The Bill has picked up many provisions of the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act 2000) for various issues. One of them also pertains to the extra territorial application of the Bill.

(4) The Bill is a good piece of work as far as administrative aspects of Aadhar project is concerned. However, it has almost nothing to offer regarding protecting civil liberties of Indians. Privacy issues, data protection issues, etc are missing from the Bill.

(5) By making the IT Act 2000 a base for many of its provisions, the Bill has incorporated the weaknesses and lacunas of the same. It seems the members drafting the Bill did not take pain to do some good research and formulate new and better provisions.

(6) The Bill’s greatest strength is its Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model through which it is seeking the expertise and assistance of various individuals, institutions, etc. The Bill is also great to the extent it catering the requirements of Research and Development regarding some of the most crucial aspects of contemporary times.

(7) The Bill has its own list of Offences and Penalties. The list though not adequate but if supported by different and supplementary legislations would strengthen the Bill. These provisions have been inspired by the IT Act 2000 with all its limitations and demerits.

(8) Provision regarding delegation of authority of the NIDAI is also incorporated to bring flexibility among the functioning of the authority. The only fact that has to be kept in mind is that this delegation must not be abused for private gains of private players.

(9) The provisions of this Act shall be in addition to, and not in derogation of, any other law for the time being in force. Thus, other law would supplement the provisions of this Bill and make it more effective.

In short, this is a great enabling legislation for the UIDAI/NIDAI and its administrative functions. It has taken care of most of the aspects that would allow the authority to perform its functions effectively, transparently and with accountability. Proper care has been taken to use PPP Model as well as to use the expertise of others.

On the negative side, the Act does not cater the civil liberties requirement that is also the toughest challenge before it and the first and foremost challenge for its authority. This may be due to the fact that the Act never intends to cater the civil liberties requirements and has left it for the Indian government through a separate legislation.

The NIDAI would face the challenge of “Unconstitutionality” on two counts. Firstly, the authority must be constituted by a proper law. This requirement would be fulfilled if the Bill is made an enforceable law. The second is that it must not violate the Civil Liberties of Indians. This is a tricky issues and the same has also been avoided by the present Bill. The Indian government has promised to enact laws regarding privacy and data protection very soon.

If the Bill and those laws are combined, they may take care of the constitutionality attacks and the NIDAI may proceed further for its tasks. But for the time being, both Aadhar Project and UIDAI/NIDAI are “Unconstitutional” Project and Authority.

International Commercial Arbitration In India And Commercial Transactions

Information and communication technology (ICT) has given a new meaning to international commercial transactions and business. E-commerce has now become an indispensable part of our day to day commercial activities. This has also given rise to both traditional as well as contemporary international commercial disputes all over the world. So much so that the Law Minister Veerappa Moily has said that a commercial court would be set up in each high court and all cases with an investment exceeding a certain sum will be tried in the commercial court.

At the same time alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism in India is also under the process of rejuvenation. Though online dispute resolution (ODR) and e-courts in India are still a distant dream yet the procedure of bringing suitable amendments in the existing arbitration law of India is in pipeline.

Thus scope of International Commercial Dispute Resolution (ICDR) Services in India is increasing day by day. ICDR can be availed of for disputes arising out of contracts on sales of goods, distributorship, agency and intermediary contracts, construction, engineering and infrastructure contracts, intellectual property contracts, domain name dispute resolutions, joint venture agreements, maritime contracts, employment contracts, etc. The list is just illustrative as the business transactions are too many to categorised here.

The traditional litigation methods of dispute resolution are not very helpful for such high staked commercial disputes. This has necessitated the requirement for ADR mechanisms like Arbitration, Mediation, Conciliation, etc.

India has tremendous capabilities for both ADR and ODR. However, India is lacking on the front of a good law in this regard. The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 has proved more to be a burden than a relief. There is an emergent need of reformulating Indian laws in this regard.

Public Services (Protection and Regulation) Bill, 2010 Of India

Very few laws are as important as is Public Services (Protection and Regulation) Bill, 2010 of India. It has, however, not received the attention that it required. Even there is no mention whether it would be passed in the current winter session (July-August 2010) of the Parliament of India or not.

The “Model Public Services Law” was one of the items included in the President’s Address to Parliament on the 4th June, 2009. The law is to cover functionaries providing important social services like education, health, rural development, etc., and commit them to their duties and for that purpose, Legislative Department has attempted a tentative Bill titled the Public Services (Protection and Regulation) Bill, 2010.

The legislation seems to be a good one and like right to information act can go a long way in reforming and streamlining public services in India. Removal of corruption and bringing transparency in public dealings must be the main objective of the ultimate bill.

Interested persons or institutions may send their suggestions or recommendations to the ministry of law, India.

National Litigation Policy Of India

Law Minister Veerappa Moily has recently released the National Litigation Policy of India (NLPI). It has many good legal and judicial reforms ideas. From avoiding unnecessary litigation by governmental departments to use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism, the NLPI is full of great ideas.

However, the NLPI is also deficient when it comes to use of information and communication technology (ICT) for legal and judicial purposes. The NLPI lacks ICT impetus as it failed to address the issues like e-courts and online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanism as means of speedy and effective dispute resolutions.

Further, in the absence of political will, India also cannot be a global arbitration hub. The absence of political will would also jeopardise the NLPI and the same may remains as mere words.

Moily is working really hard in the direction of legal and judicial reforms and all he need is accomplishment of the tasks assigned in NLPI. Further, he must also have a pro active approach towards use of ICT for legal and judicial purposes.

Moily must insist upon time bound achievements regarding crucial projects like e-courts and ODR. There is also an emergent need of techno legal trainings of police officers, lawyers, judges, court staffs, etc.

Let us hope that Moily would pay attention to all these crucial aspects so that legal and judicial reforms can be a reality in India.

Domain Name Dispute Resolution Institutions In India

Domain name disputes are increasing day by days these days. This is primarily attributable to cyber squatting episodes. The growing cyber squatting incidences require strong domain name protection and effective domain name dispute resolution mechanism.

The present domain names are based upon IPv4 and very soon India would adopt the IPv6 framework. This would also add its own share of domain name dispute that have to be handled effectively.

All over the world individuals, organisations and nations are working in the direction of using online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanism for resolving various disputes, including domain name disputes. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has been using ODR mechanism to resolve disputes for long.

In India, we have selective institutions that are providing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services. Even fewer are institutions providing ODR services and just a single platform providing techno- legal ODR services.

The limited growth of ADR and ODR in India is primarily attributable to lack of awareness among the individuals and companies engaged in disputes. Further, even the laws in this regard are not appropriate.

The Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 is the sole ADR law of India and there is no dedicated law regarding ODR in India. Although arbitration services in India are for long yet they have to match the international standards. This is the reason why Law Minister Veerappa Moily is considering amendments in the ADR law of India.

With the ADR law in the process of amendments and India’s stand to shift to IPv6 the future of Indian domain name dispute resolution institutions seems to be bright.

What Failed E-Governance In India

E-governance in India has become a source of corruption rather than removing corruption and bringing transparency. Various e-governance projects in India have been achieved on papers alone without any transparency and accountability for the hard earned public money wastage.

E-governance in India has by and large a flop show. There are many factors that led to the poor performance of the e-governance in India. The major among them are lack of planning, omnipresent corruption in governmental offices, lack of accountability, misleading policies, etc. Further, e-governance in India has never been considered a part of good governance.

E-governance is beyond the scope of e-government. While e-government is defined as a mere delivery of government services and information to the public using electronic means, e-governance allows direct participation of constituents in government activities.

E-governance is not just about government web site and e-mail. It is not just about service delivery over the Internet. It is not just about digital access to government information or electronic payments. It will change how citizens relate to governments as much as it changes how citizens relate to each other. It will bring forth new concepts of citizenship, both in terms of needs and responsibilities.

E-governance will allow citizens to communicate with government, participate in the governments' policy-making and citizens to communicate each other. The e-governance will truly allow citizens to participate in the government decision-making process, reflect their true needs and welfare by utilizing e-government as a tool.

However, e-governance in India has been a complete failure. There is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computerisation of traditional governmental and public functions are not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of information and communication technology (ICT).

ICT has become an indispensable part of our daily life. It has the potential to streamline procedures, inculcate discipline among workforce, and bring transparency and accountability and reduction of costs. The benefits are tremendous provided we have the will, insight and knowledge to use it.

E-governance in India is in its infancy stage. The National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) is the umbrella under which all e-governance initiatives are taking place. However, there are very few successful and completed e-governance initiatives like MCA21 in India. Whether it is e-courts, e-readiness, legal enablement of ICT systems, e-gazette, e-commerce etc none are even close to success. So where lies the problem?

Firstly, there seems to be lack of insight among the policy-makers. The ICT polices and strategies of India are not covering the e-governance aspects at the national level. No political party ever considers e-governance as an important part of their political agenda before elections. Even commodities like onion and potatoes find place in national debates but not e-governance.

Secondly, there is too much stress upon procurement as opposed to management. India has to accept that computerization of traditional governmental and public functions is not e-governance. We have to empower the citizens with the power of ICT. We have to make the governmental services user-friendly as well as productive and easy.

Thirdly, there is lack of transparency in governmental dealing and in the absence of the same e-governance is just paperwork. In India, we have the Right to Information Act, 2005 but the same has been a failure in India. The public information officers keep on denying the relevant information on flimsy grounds. In exceptional cases, citizens may get some information but by and large very few people get the information.

Fourthly, accountability among governmental officers is missing. There is no mechanism through which we can punish a wrong doer for his violations and negligence. This results in a casual attitude towards public good and e-governance. If we fix accountability and time-bound progress requirements then a lot of problems can be solved.

Fifthly, public participation in both policy making and governmental decisions is missing. If we get the opinion of those who are somehow surviving at the grassroots level we can solve the majority of our problems. However, the fact is that grassroots level problems are never solved.

E-governance will be successful only if we start to undertake due efforts to implement it in all blocks and districts and spread it to the grass root level. Being the largest democratic country, India must show an example to other in this context.

But in last many years we have not seen the efficiency of public servants, who are supposed to be the some of the best brain of India. For attaining developed status our public service system must work in a better way. Citizen must participate in various activities, if we really want to see India as a developed nation. Public service must be strengthened in India in true spirit, if we want to become to become a developed nation in near future.

Cross Border E-Commerce Transactions And Online Dispute Resolution

Arbitration law of India must accommodate some of the present day’s method of dispute resolution. Online dispute resolution (ODR) is one of the contemporary methods of dispute resolution. With the growing numbers of human interactions, there are growing incidences of disputes among them. ODR can be an effective, instantaneous and cost economic method of dispute resolution.

However, ODR has to face many technical and legal challenges as well. That is why modern day ODR must be techno-legal in nature. Besides, ODR must also be associated with other allied fields like e-courts to produce better results.

Cross border e-commerce transactions have further mandated that there must be an internationally accepted ODR framework that must be used while resolving various disputes.

In the Indian context, we have very few ODR providers that are providing qualitative ODR services. However, there is just a single techno legal ODR centre in India that is managed by Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB). In fact, PTLB is also exclusively providing online ODR training so that ODR may be widely used in India.

PTLB has launched the most comprehensive techno legal trainings for lawyers, judges, police officers, court managers, arbitrators, mediators, ODR professionals, etc. These trainings are managed by an online platform to maximise the reach of the trainings of PTLB. Application Form for enrollment to various techno legal training courses of PTLB can be downloaded from Here.

PTLB is also working in the direction of International harmonisation of ODR best practices and ODR regulatory and dispute resolution framework. With these initiatives, the future of ODR in India seems to be bright.

Techno Legal Skill Development By PTLB

These days almost all the persons and institutions are required to deal with techno legal issues like cyber law, cyber forensics, cyber security, etc. However, these techno legal fields are highly specialised in nature and they require good amount of training form the best institutions. Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) is one such institution that provides world class online and offline techno legal trainings and education.

PTLB has launched the most comprehensive techno legal trainings for lawyers, judges, police officers, court managers, arbitrators, mediators, ODR professionals, etc. These trainings are managed by an online platform to maximise the reach of the trainings of PTLB. Application Form for enrollment to various techno legal training courses of PTLB can be downloaded from Here.

Techno legal trainings are particularly important for corporate executives, lawyers and judges. The corporate executives have to take care of regulatory and technical requirements at companies. The lawyers have to develop good knowledge of contemporary topics like cyber law, cyber forensics, etc. Similarly, the judges cannot give proper judgment till they are aware of techno legal issues.

These training and skill development programs of PTLB can go a long way in effective implementation of national litigation policy of India (NLPI). Further, these courses also have great scope for legal and judicial reforms in India.

SOURCE: PTLB NEWS

TrueCrypt Version 7.0 Released With Hardware Accelerator Support

TrueCrypt is a software application that provides great on-the-fly encryption capabilities. It is an open source tool that is available free of cost for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms.

It creates a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mounts it as a real disk. It can also encrypt an entire partition or storage device such as USB flash drive or hard drive. It encrypts a partition or drive where Windows is installed (pre-boot authentication). It also allows parallelisation and pipelining that allows data to be read and written as fast as if the drive was not encrypted. Most importantly, it provides the plausible deniability feature, in case an adversary forces you to reveal the password.

However, TrueCrypt is not a panacea and users are required to take additional security mechanisms to keep their date completely safe.

TrueCrypt has recently released version 7.0. Some new features have been added the chief among them are hardware-accelerated AES, support for devices that use sector sizes other than 512 bytes, ability to configure a volume to be automatically mounted whenever its host device gets connected to the computer, favorites organizer, and more.

Most of Intel's Core i5 and i7 processors support AES-NI instructions required to accelerate the AES engine. However those who don't trust Intel's implementation of AES can force Truecrypt to use its own open source AES engine, without hardware acceleration.

If you find the product useful, consider donating some amount so that the product can be further improved and continued to be available free of cost.

India Is Getting Ready For IPV6 Framework

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is an Internet Protocol version which is designed to succeed IPv4. Till now IPv4 is still in use and world over efforts are under process to shift to IPv6.

The main reason for this shift to IPv6 is inadequacy of IPv4 to accommodate the growing demands of IP addresses. Besides, network security is also integrated into the design of the IPv6 architecture.

The Indian government has recently released the roadmap for IPv6 deployment in the country in a time bound manner. Indian citizens would be able to start using IPv6 services by March 2012.

All the Telecom and Internet Service providers are required to become IPv6 compliant by December-2011 and offer IPv6 services thereafter.

However, cyber security issues of IPv6 cannot be ignored. Many security solutions don’t support IPv6 very well today. Many IPS vendors are “light” with their IPv6 signatures and v6-based anomaly detection is also light. Support for IPv6 amongst SIEM vendors varies widely. And then, there’s network management – how well does your console support IPv6?

We must also not forget that a complete tool set to attack the inherent protocol weaknesses of IPv6 and ICMP6 with an easy to use packet factory library is openly available.

Any shift from IPv4 to IPv6 must keep in mind all the aspects.

Cyber Investigative Services In India

Cyberspace dealings are increasing day by day as information and communication technology (ICT) has become an essential part of our daily lives. Whether it is e-governance or e-commerce, technology has touched almost all aspects of our lives.

However, cyberspace, like real word, is not a safe place. In fact, it is less safe than real space because we cannot ascertain with whom we are dealings unless we use technical methods to ascertain the identity of a cyber netizens.

Digital forensics investigation is one of the methods where the perpetrators of cyber crimes and cyber contraventions can be ascertained. Digital forensics investigations in India are still at the infancy stage and very few specialised firms are providing these services.

Cyber investigation services are essentially techno legal in nature. This is so because we need both technical as well as legal issues to be addressed while conducting a cyber investigation. Further, cyber investigation also required techno legal training so that cyber investigators can handle the cases properly.

A wrongly handled case may be lost in a court of law. The chain of evidence must be kept intact otherwise the evidence may be inadmissible in courts. This also requires proper handling of digital evidence by the digital investigators.

Legal Services India: A Legal Platform or Illegal Platform

Bar council of India (BCI) has been trying a lot to improve the standards of Indian legal profession but the one thing that it has to take care of is the lack of research capabilities and legal acumen. A closer scrutiny of most of the articles written by law students of even by national law schools show the poor state of legal research capabilities in India.

Even worst is the platforms that publish the same. They even do not bother to make a preliminary search to ascertain whether the article in questions is original or not? One such platform that is very regular in copyright violations of other is Legal Services India. It frequently publishes copyright violated articles at its platform. At times they are almost complete cut, copy and paste one whereas on numerous occasions its authors pick large number of contents without prior permission and proper attribution.

For example, consider the article titled Copyright law in India published at Indymedia by Mr. Praveen Dalal. The same was published on 14/07/2005 at 15:23. Now consider this article under the same title published on 20 Mar 2008. It is a clear case of copyright violation as the dates suggests themselves.

There are many such articles published at the Legal Services India that is openly and blatantly violating the copyright of others. Now even the administrator of legal services is aware of this copyright violation, it would be a fit case to prosecute them under the provisions of Indian Copyright Act, 1957.

It appears that the legal research acumen of Indian legal fraternity is at its lowest rung. The efforts of BCI to streamline the same are praiseworthy but the task is not easy to manage as long as we have students and platforms like legal services that openly violate others copyright.

Domain Name System Security Extensions Fully Installed

According to Wikipedia “The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) is a suite of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) specifications for securing certain kinds of information provided by the Domain Name System (DNS) as used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It is a set of extensions to DNS which provide to DNS clients (resolvers) origin authentication of DNS data, authenticated denial of existence, and data integrity, but not availability or confidentiality”.

Operators of the Internet’s authoritative root zone last week completed deployment of enhanced security protocols at the top level of the Domain Name System. The Internet’s 13 root zone DNS servers have been digitally signed using the DNSSEC since May. On July 15 the signed root zone was made available and a trust anchor was published with cryptographic keys that will allow users to verify the authenticity of DNS address requests.

Digitally signed responses to DNS queries that can be cryptographically validated are more difficult to spoof or manipulate. This can help to combat attacks such as pharming, cache poisoning, and DNS redirection that are used to commit fraud and identity theft and to distribute malware.

However, using DNSSEC not a complete solution to the DNS security infrastructure. The TLDs like .com and .net have yet to be signed. .gov and .org were signed in 2009. There is still a lot of work to be done on all of the intervening infrastructure from DNS servers, firewalls and other network equipment that processes/passes DNS, host stub resolvers, and DNS registries will have to support DNSSE. Then there still needs to be a reason to use DNSSEC over SSL/TLS since both protocols can positively identify and authenticate a host.

However, none can doubt about the utility of this first step that would go a long way in ensuring secure and safer DNS uses. With the increasing uses of DNS for malicious purposes, it is very important that we must use internationally accepted uniform standards in this regard.

Australian Federal Police Opens Office In New Delhi

Transborder crimes are difficult to detect and eve more difficult to prosecute. Although there are law enforcement collaborative platforms like Interpol yet at times it becomes imperative to act swiftly.

This requires collaboration of local law enforcement agencies in real time. This has inspired the Australian federal police to open its office in New Delhi which is expected to boost their capacity to fight common threats like terrorism and cyber crime.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Tony Negus is optimistic that this would help police in both the countries in combating crime.

In this globalised and inter connected world, transnational crime is a growing threat. This is more so regarding cyber crimes that can be committed through Internet.

This is a good step and India must also, if it has not already done so, open a similar office in Australia. Further, there is also a need of joint operations and joint trainings between Indian and Australian police forces.

E-Discovery Law In India

E-discovery law in India has still to be enacted. Although India has the cyber law of India incorporated in the form of information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000) yet it is far from being sufficient for cyber forensics and e-discovery purposes.

Cyber forensics is different from E-Discovery, Digital Recovery or other synonymous terms. Cyber Forensics primarily caters the "Legal Requirements" whereas E-Discovery meets the requirements of private individuals and organisations.

In India we have an exclusive techno legal e-discovery research, training and educational centre. The same is managed by the Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) segment of Perry4Law.

E-discovery issues are posing problems before the law enforcement officials, lawyers and judges in India. They find it real difficult to deal with these techno legal issues. Although these stakeholders are comfortable with traditional evidence issues yet when it comes to e-discovery or digital evidencing in India they are almost clueless.

There is an urgent need of training of police officers, lawyers and judges in crucial techno legal fields.

ODR In India Got Techno Legal Rejuvenation

Online Dispute Resolution in India (ODR in India) is in its infancy stage. Even if we compare the same with other parts of the world, India is not lagging much far behind. However, there is a dearth of initiatives in this regard in India.

Further, the laws of India are also not conducive for the establishment and growth of ODR in India. Fortunately, we have a guiding path in the form of techno legal ADR and ODR platform that can be utilised to establish ODR in India.

With the establishment of PTLB training, education and policy making platform a great impetus has been provided to ODR in general and techno –legal issues in particular. The cycle seems to be complete with the establishment of a techno legal ODR platform in this regard.

Law Minister Veerappa Moily must incorporate the relevant provisions in the proposed amendments in the arbitration law of India to accommodate ODR as well. These techno legal platforms can provide valuable guidance and support for an ODR regulatory framework in India and world wide.

Cyber Arbitration And Mediation Centre Of India

Cyber arbitration in India or cyber mediation in India is the recognition of the changing trend of dispute resolution. Traditionally dispute resolution was an exclusive task of the court alone.

However, the business community desired for an alternative for court litigation. This resulted in the use of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms like arbitration, mediation, conciliation, lok adalats, etc.

Information and communication technology (ICT) changed the very manner in which these ADR mechanisms are used. Now business community is stressing more upon online dispute resolution (ODR) than ADR mechanism.

ODR is the most convenient, efficient and speedier method of dispute resolution. The parties are not even required to leave their places and they can resolve their disputes even while sitting at their homes or offices.

With the benefits of ODR there are certain challenges attached to it as well. For instance there are very few ODR service providers in India. Even lesser are the ODR experts who can resolve the disputes through ODR. Further, when it comes to scientific disciplines, there is an inherent limitation for ODR providers to understand those issues. Fortunately, we have a cyber arbitration and mediation centre (CAMC) in India that is providing world class ADR and ODR services.

Sooner or later Indian arbitrators and mediators must learn to adopt and use ODR as the future belong to the ODR community. If you are a lawyer or judge you may consider the techno-legal training platform by Perry4Law Techno Legal base (PTLB) for getting good ADR and ODR training.

If you are an arbitrator or mediator or other professional, you may consider another platform of PTLB that provides cyber law, ODR and other similar trainings. All these platforms of PTLB provide online training, coaching and education and you can get these training as per your convenience.

Cyber Arbitration In India

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) in India has a history of more than 60 years with the Arbitration Act 1940 as one of the initial laws in this regard. The 1940 act was repealed by the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996.

This has, however, not produced much change in the ADR law of India. The backlog of civil cases keeps on increasing despite the 1996 Act. This is due to the fact that there are many legal, procedural and fundamental weaknesses in the 1996 Act.

The 1996 Act is in the process of reformulation and there are numerous lacunas that must be removed in the next ADR law of India. The Parliament of India has, however, a serious limitation while formulating ADR laws. It is not much aware of the information and communication technology (ICT) related issues of ADR.

Cyber arbitration is one such aspect. Cyber arbitration is popularly known as online dispute resolution (ODR) mechanism. ODR is a better and improved form of ADR provided India is willing to encash its benefits.

The problem is there are very few ODR institutions in India. Even lesser are ODR experts who can resolve technical, legal and other scientific disputes in an online environment. Even the national litigation policy of India (NLPI) failed to address this issue.

There is no doubt that formulating good techno-legal ODR practices and regulations require tremendous expertise. There are few ODR providers who can assist the Indian government in this regard.

Law Enforcement Of India Needs Cyber Law Training

Law enforcement in India finds it really difficult to deal with technology related cases. There is an urgent need to train them in technology related fields. They cannot always seek outside help for solving cyber crimes and technology related crimes.

They must have techno-legal solution at their disposal so that cases can be efficiently and quickly solved. Further, they must also develop indigenous law enforcement intelligence capabilities.

One may frequently come across media claims that make the law enforcement of India tech savvy. The fact is that law enforcement in India is not at all aware of technology related issues.

Not only the law enforcement machinery of India must be trained in the field of cyber law but also they must have basic level cyber forensics training. Mere opening of cyber crime cell and conducting few workshops would not serve the purpose. Law enforcement in India needs long term and durable training.

Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB), a reputed cyber law training organisation, imparts cyber law training to law officials, judges, police officers, lawyers and corporate personnel. The online training sessions offered by the institution does not even require the learner to be physically present at the training venue. They can learn as per their convenience, from the comfort of their offices.

It would be a good idea if the government of India provides real and effective cyber law and cyber forensics training to police force of India. With growing incidences of cyber crimes in India this has become a much required necessity.

Open Source Hardware (OSHW) Draft Definition Version 0.3 Released

According to Wikipedia “Open source hardware is hardware that is designed and offered in the same manner as free and open source software (FOSS). Open source hardware is part of the open source culture and applies the open source concept to hardware. The term usually means that information about the hardware is open to all. This would include the hardware design, as well as a FOSS approach to the software that drives the hardware.

According to another source, “Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is a term for tangible artifacts -- machines, devices, or other physical things -- whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things”.

This definition is intended to help provide guidelines for the development and evaluation of licenses for Open Source Hardware. According to this definition the distribution terms of OSHW must have the prerequisites like Documentation, Necessary Software, Derived Works, Free redistribution, Attribution, No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups, No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor, Distribution of License, License Must Not Be Specific to a Product, License Must Not Restrict Other Hardware or Software and License Must Be Technology-Neutral.

The OSHW culture also prevents arbitrary governmental dealings of hardware as everything is public and nothing is hidden. At present, many nations are banning certain hardware on the basis that they may carry malware or backdoors and thereby are security threats. When hardware is based upon open source foundation, these governments already would have the “source code” and any such decision would in itself be unreasonable.

As per the recent news, open-source hardware companies like Adafruit, Arduino, Chumby, and others have come together to set standards for their nascent industry. This is not only in the interest of end users but these companies as well. Open source is a big industry in itself and merebly because something is based upon open source does not mean that companies cannot derive commercial gain from it.

Further, open source culture also provides an opportunity to improve the end product as many contributors can provide their inputs for the same. In case of a closed source product, this is the biggest limitation and the commercial company has to engage its own technicians to do the job.

Co.Cc Is Blocking Domains Illegally

Free domain service providers like Co.Cc are not following the civil liberties in their true letter and spirit. Rather, on flimsy and extraneous grounds, Co.Cc is filtering and blocking domains without and reasons and justifications. Co.Cc has recently blocked the domain that was used for the famous news site named Cjnews that has been providing techno-legal news, views, opinions, articles, etc.

If you are looking for a free domain, do not consider Co.Cc at all unless you wish to let your hard labour go to drains. In fact, the free domain provider Co.Cc is not providing free anything. It is trying to encash upon the goodwill and reputation of a domain registered at its platform. May be it is an arm twisting technique of Co.Cc to get costs from freely registered users.

Once a domain is well known and reputed, it is blocking the same for extraneous considerations without any prior notice and explaining grounds for the same. On 5th July 2010 our site was suddenly off the web. We analysed and found that there was a server side error that prevented it from appearing. However, on contacting our host provider it was very clear that this illegal blocking was happening on the Co.Cc level. How something like this could happen without any prior intimation is beyond understanding?

Even there is a clear change of stand by Co.Cc from time to time. Firstly they said that the domain has been suspended because Co.Cc thought it has some “possibilities” to become a phishing / spam / illegal site. On pursuing the matter further, they shifted their stand and informed that our site was blocked due to “inappropriate contents”. It seems our site has suddenly ceased to be site “capable” of phishing, spam and illegal activity in “future”. Now our site is providing “inappropriate contents” in present.

Come on Co.Cc clear your head and give us the real reason for your illegal and unreasonable blocking of our site. The funny reasons that you are giving is only strengthening the suspicion of bad faith and mala fide intentions on your part. Similarly, this episode is all raising lot of doubts about your professional and legal commitments.

It seems Co.Cc is trying to hush up something more sinister. Either they are acting on the instance of governmental authorities (Indian or Korean) or they are trying to establish a dubious practice of arm twisting and then forcing free users pay otherwise. It is high time for Co.Cc to explain their illegal and unreasonable actions

If this is the attitude of Co.Cc, we recommend that none should register a free domain with them. Too much for the cost of a free domain from a site named Co.Cc.

Critical ICT Infrastructure Protection In India

Critical ICT infrastructure protection (CIIP) is becoming more and more crucial these days. The reason is very simple to understand. These days many crucial functions of private and government are essentially connected with the computers and computers systems. If these computers or computer systems are compromised, much damage can be done to the country where such breach has occurred.

Although the importance of CIIP is well understood by India yet it has not taken any active steps in this regard. There is neither a cyber security policy of India nor is there any strategy in this regard. Even there is absence of basic level of cyber security training in India and cyber security research and development in India.

Till now we have just one techno-legal cyber security research and training centre in India (CSRTCI). The same is managed by Perry4Law, the exclusive techno-legal firm of India. The CSRTCI has been managing the techno-legal aspects of cyber security for long. Some of the areas of its specialisation pertain to cyber law, cyber security, cyber forensics, cyber war, cyber terrorism, cyber espionage, corporate espionage, critical ICT infrastructure protection, CCTNS, Natgrid, NCTC, etc.

However, CSRTCI is also a part of much larger and highly specialised initiative providing protection to human rights in cyberspace. The human rights initiative is also the exclusive initiative providing techno-legal measures and remedies against cyber terrorism in India and cyber war in India.

Except this private initiative, there is no other initiative that is providing techno-legal solutions against cyber terrorism, cyber war, cyber espionage, etc. Sooner or later India would also need to take measures to protect CIIP.

Online Cyber Law Education In India

Cyber law is a specialised field of law that requires knowledge of both legal and technical principles. However, contrary to the general perception prevailing among the potential cyber law professionals, cyber law is much more than mere academic diplomas and degrees. Cyber law requires actual practical application of technical and legal principles to a given situation.

Here comes the importance of a good techno-legal training and education course that caters the practical requirement of this specialised field. In India there are very few techno-legal training and education course providers. Perry4Law Techno-Legal Base (PTLB) is the best techno-legal cyber law education and training provider not only in India but also world wide.

The best part about its qualitative techno-legal training and educational courses is that they are also available through online mode. The online platform of PTLB allows a lawyer, judge, law enforcement officer corporate executive, etc to sharpen their cyber law related skills even at the comfort of their home, offices, chambers or corporate room.

Presently PTLB is providing techno-legal online cyber law education in India, online cyber law training in India, online cyber law internship in India, online cyber law coaching in India and many such related services.

For the members of legal fraternity and judicial community, PTLB has launched a separate platform known as Online Lawyers And Judges Training And Educational Centre of India. In short, it is known as Bar & Bench Blog that provides meaningful insight to lawyers and judges world wide.

With these great techno-legal cyber law training and education initiatives of PTLB, the law enforcement, legal, judicial and corporate segments can be benefited a lot.