Monday, January 10, 2011

Will India Wake Up To Cyber Security Realities?

Industrial lobbying is a bane for India as it has been weakening Indian economy and Indian national, internal and external security. Take the issue of cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics.

India has a pathetic and criminal friendly cyber law known as information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). The same has been amended by the information technology amendment act 2008 (IT Act 2008) for the sole purpose of e-surveillance and Internet censorship activities in India. This present pathetic position of the IT Act 2000 is also due to the industrial lobbying that prevented Parliament of India from enacting a strong, effective and stringent cyber law.

According to Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of techno legal ICT Law Firm Perry4Law and Supreme Court Lawyer, India is blind towards cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics requirements. The IT Act 2000 is a poorly drafted law and badly implemented legislation. It is weak and ineffective in dealing with growing Cyber Crimes in India as it is the most “Soft and Cyber Criminal Friendly Legislation” of the World, opines Praveen Dalal. There is an urgent need to “Amend” the present cyber law of India and make it Robust, Effective and Stringent, suggests Praveen Dalal.

An issue related to this lack of cyber capabilities of India pertains to capabilities of law enforcement agencies to deal with cyber law and cyber crimes related cases. Presently, Indian law enforcement agencies have negligible capacity in this regard.

With the suggestion of The Central Bureau of Investigation Act, 2010 (The CBI Act 2010), the responsibilities of CBI would also be increased drastically in this regard, informs Praveen Dalal. However, CBI is not prepared to deal with issues like cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics. In fact, CBI website has been defaced by alleged Pakistani crackers and is down for the time being.

India needs greater research and training in the fields of cyber war, cyber terrorism, cyber security, cyber forensics, cyber law, etc. India just has a single techno legal cyber security centre that is providing techno legal research, training and education in this regard. CBI and other law enforcement agencies must actively seek support of institutions or centers like the one managed by Perry4Law Techno Legal base (PTLB).

It has been a long time since India is sleeping over these crucial matters. It is high time for India to wake up and do something in this regard.