Cyber crime is a global menace whereas its dealing is a territorial aspect. This has resulted in inadequate and ineffective measures to fight against cyber crimes. There is no universally acceptable cyber crime treaty of the world. Further, India is also not a part of any treaty or convention on cyber crimes. European Union (EU) has in the past tired to being international norms in this regard through the EU convention on cyber crime. However, not all countries of the world are member party to this convention. In fact Indian response to the international cyber crime treaty is somewhat indifferent.
India has its own Cyber Law in the form of Information Technology Act 2000. It is based upon the Model Law on Electronic Commerce adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, informs Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and leading cyber law expert of India. However, India is still not a part of any International Treaty or Convention on Cyber Crimes, informs Dalal.
Indian cyber law is not upto the mark and it deserves to be repealed immediately. The IT Act 2000 was enacted more than 10 years back and since then lots of changes have taken place. Further, India has not yet formulated a cyber crime policy that can effectively deal with cyber law related issues in India.
Indian government is also planning to provide mandatory electronic governance service in India. Further, areas like mobile governance, mobile banking, etc are also being explored by India.
Indian Legal Framework and Administrative Infrastructure are not conductive for issues like Cloud Computing, E-Governance, M-Governance, Mobile Banking, etc, suggests Dalal. Before embarking upon these crucial fields, India must adopt Sound International Practices and Standards, suggest Dalal.
International community, especially European Union, must also work in the direction of formulating a Universally Acceptable Standard so that the fight against Cyber Crimes can be truly Global. Further, International Collaboration in the fields like Law Enforcement Cooperation, Cyber Security Cooperation, etc must also be undertaken, suggests Dalal.
For the time being, global cyber crime fight is hampered due to lack of harmonisation and international standards. This is causing loss and damage to all countries and none is benefited due to this void. Let us hope that international standards and norm regarding cyber crimes would be formulated very soon.
