Supreme Court Irked At Pathetic Privacy In India

Finally, the Supreme Court of India took a serious note of the growing and blatant incidences of privacy violation in India by Indian government and private individuals/companies supported by it.

Supreme Court went upto the extent of saying that no person living in India is safe from privacy violations and omnipresent forgeries prevalent in India. The observation came while hearing a petition filed by politician Amar Singh regarding illegal phone taping of his communications.

The telecom company in question is Reliance Communications that is now claiming to have acted on the basis of a forged letter claiming to have authorised phone tapping of Amar Singh. Reacting sharply the Supreme Court asked the Centre why the licence of the service provider was not cancelled for such a casual approach.

This case is just tip of the iceberg as we have no lawful interception law in India. Phone tapping in India is done in an illegal and unconstitutional manner. There is no provision for judicial oversight of executive orders authorising phone tapping.

The most fatal blow came from the information technology amendment act 2008 that amended the sole cyber law of India. Through this amendment India has become an endemic e-surveillance society. There are no procedural safeguards against the orwellian powers that Indian government acquired for itself through this amendment.

The present practice of Indian government regarding phone tapping, e-surveillance and e-interceptions is far from being legal and constitutional. India urgently needs a constitutionally sound lawful interception law. Let us hope the Supreme Court would bring some order in the otherwise chaosed banana republic of India.

Cyber Law Of India In Bad Shape

Cyber law is an important legislation these days. With active use of information technology in almost every aspect of our daily lives, there is an inescapable requirement to regulate our online behaviours.

An ideal cyber law must regulate illegal and unlawful activities while giving maximum leverage to legitimate and legal dealings. Indian cyber law is doing the opposite. While it encourages cyber criminals to engage in unlimited and unrestricted criminal activities by making their criminal acts bailable, legitimate and law abiding people are subjected to unconstitutional e-surveillance and scrutiny.

There was no need to provide unregulated and unaccountable e-surveillance, Internet censorship and website blocking powers to Indian government and its agencies. But not only was it done through the information technology amendment act, 2008 but that also without any procedural safeguards.

On the other hand, the amendment also made almost all the cyber crimes bailable thereby making the cyber law of India impotent and cyber criminals friendly. The ministry of communication and information technology (MCIT) seems to have succumbed to industrial lobbying and made the sole cyber law of India a big mockery. Even Kapil Sibal seems to be in no mood to repeal the present cyber law and come up with a strong and effective cyber law.

Now it is for the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to take appropriate action. He cannot afford to maintain a silence stance. Already the implications of weak cyber law and inadequate cyber security capabilities of India have started appearing. Indian cyber space is regularly invaded by crackers and foreign nations. But then who cares this is India.

Mobile Banking In India Is Risky

The idea of mobile banking in India is not new and rather it is one of the most progressive and promising initiative. However, like all other projects and initiatives of India, even mobile banking is not free from troubles.

The present banking and other technology related legal frameworks are not conducive for mobile banking in India. We do not have a well developed e-governance infrastructure in India. Similarly, on the front of e-commerce as well, India is not much successful.

However, the most troublesome legal hurdle is a weak and cyber criminal’s friendly cyber law of India. The information technology act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000) is the sole cyber law of India that does not carry any sort of deterrent effect. While implementing mobile banking in India, sound legal framework is required for banking and cyber law related issues.

There are no limits to the troubles when institutions like national payments corporation of India (NPCI) and unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) join their hands. Both Aadhar project and UIDAI are unconstitutional as they go against the very scheme of Indian constitution. Further, they are also not supported by any legal framework and are executive hegemony by hijacking the constitution.

NPCI has decided to use unconstitutional and illegal UID numbers for allowing customers to do financial transactions using their mobile phone. It may be used to open an account, make a cash deposit or a withdrawal. NPCI would use the UID number along with the customer's thumb impression for offering this service.

Surprisingly, this is proposed immediately after the reserve bank of India (RBI) has asked the banks to consider the report of one of its working group dealing with cyber frauds and cyber crimes. This initiative seems to be going against the core recommendations of that report.

Presently, banks are not performing due diligence as per the requirements of cyber law of India. Let us hope the RBI would make this initiative of NPCI /UIDAI more users friendly and safe.

Should India Use Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is a profitable business model, especially in India. This is the reason why it has been literally imposed upon Indian netizens without telling them of the dangers of the same.

India has a weak cyber law, ineffective cyber security and lack of privacy, data protection and data security laws. In other words, cloud computing is a perfect breading ground for cyber criminals of India and word over.

Lack of regulatory and security support has discouraged a dominant majority of CEOs in India to use cloud computing for their business. Add to these woes the incidences of frequent leakage of sensitive information in India as well as growing unaccountable e-surveillance in India.

Imagine a situation where the cloud computing service providers have nothing to loose by intentional or unintentional leakage of sensitive information. They cannot be challenges in a court of law as they would not be violating any law.

Further, if the security agencies are accessing that information, even without a court warrant, these cloud computing service providers would be more than happy to oblige them.

India must first establish proper legal frameworks for privacy, data security, data protection, lawful interceptions and effective cyber laws. Equally important is a law on information security that is missing in India.

Till these laws are in place, cloud computing is a risky and undesirable model in India.

Blackberry May Get A New Deadline In India

The time limit to provide encryption keys of enterprise services of Blackberry has already expired. Research in motion (RIM), the company managing Blackberry services, is still maintaining that it has no control over the encryption keys residing at the sets of users.

However, Indian government is not accepting this argument of Blackberry and is still asking for the keys. Since the deadline is already over, it is obvious that Blackberry would get another breath of life in India.

Meanwhile, Telecom Secretary R. Chandrasekhar said the access to corporate emails sought by India's security agencies is not specific to RIM. However, the government has not sent any requests seeking access to any other companies, he said. Of course, he is hinting towards encrypted Gmail and Skype services.

This deadlock is not going to be solved very soon. However, government of India has forgotten a more important issue associated with this exercise. It is very easy to get information in plain text in real time but it is an altogether different game when it comes to decrypting a highly encrypted message.

Encryption is not limited to Blackberry services alone. There are many great free encryption software that Indian security agencies would never be able to defeat. This is so because Indian security agencies are taking the easy route rather than developing good and effective cyber forensics capabilities.

TRAI Let Down Indian Mobile Users Again

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has once again let down Indian mobile users by extending the date of telemarketing regulations till 1st March, 2011. It seems the telemarketing lobby would never allow regulation of telemarketing calls and messages in India.

TRAI first adopted the defective do not call registry instead of do call registry. Now it is shying away from imposing a ban upon telemarketing industry, which is not at all welcomed by frustrated mobile users in India.

Telemarketing is a clear violation of right to privacy but who cares about privacy in India. Indian government has openly declared its intentions to violate privacy rights of Indians by projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS, etc. Telemarketing nuisance is just another feather in the privacy violating policy of India.

However, the matter does not end here. There is also a related and much more dangerous situation developing in India. Indian cyber law is a weak piece of law when it comes to punishing cyber criminals. Realising the potential of making quick buck, cyber criminals have now started using messages/SMS to perpetuate their favourite Nigerian scam.

Instead of an e-mail now cyber criminals are sending SMSs to unwary victims and duping them of lakhs of money in India. Since there is no scrutiny and regulations for such fraudulent and telemarketing calls and SMSs, many are getting fooled by the same.

However, Indian government in general and department of telecommunication (DoT) India and TRAI in particular are well committed to allow these nefarious activities to the detriment of common man. Mobile users must be wary of such frauds and must develop their own methods to prevent loss to themselves. The best option seems to be aware of such frauds and never reply back to them.

Encryption Is A Feared Technology In India

National security should be strengthened by technology and not threatened by it. In fact, technology seldom threatens national security but only strengthens it. Still governments all over the world are trying to make technology a villain and are using the façade of national security to suppress it.

Recently, Google, Skype and Blackberry were in news for their encryption technologies. Google was asked to surrender the encryption keys of its Gmail that it, rightly and boldly, refused. Skype has not yet been officially contacted regarding its encrypted VOIP services. Research in motion’s (RIM) Blackberry, on the other hand, is in continuous controversies.

Although Blackberry has agreed to provide real time and in plain text access to its messenger services through a cloud computing environment in India yet it has expressed its inability to provide encryption keys residing at user’s servers for its enterprise services. Another deadline passed as Blackberry did not provide the encryption keys to India.

India’s intention to curb cyber security capabilities of Indian citizens became apparent when the sole cyber law of India, i.e. information technology act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000) was amended by the information technology act, 2008 (IT Act, 2008).

The government was quick enough to confer upon itself and its agencies wide and unregulated e-surveillance and Internet censorship powers, but it deliberately avoided incorporating necessary safeguards to prevent abuse of these powers. Till now we do not have such safeguards.

Even procedural safeguards and applicability regarding encryption norms in India have not been incorporated by the government till now. There are no rules regarding encryption standards under the amended IT Act, 2000.

India should not fear encryption and should not sacrifice the cyber security of its crucial organisations and systems. Criminal elements and terrorists have better methods than using mere Blackberry, Skype or Gmail. Leave these companies/services alone and develop actual cyber security capabilities so that cyber criminals and terrorists can be arrested before they engage in their nefarious activities.

Use Of ICT For Legal And Judicial Reforms In India

Information and communication technology (ICT) has been improving the lives of millions all over the world. ICT can be used for multi purposes through the mode of e-governance. E-governance can reduce the hassles that ordinary man has to undergo in India.

Anybody familiar with the Indian legal and judicial system would tell you that it horrifying in nature. A common man dares not to engage in court proceedings and prefers to settle his disputes outside the courts.

Even growing rates of retaliatory crimes show an increasing distrust towards our legal and judicial system. There is an urgent need to bring suitable legal and judicial reforms in India and nothing can bring speedier and effective reforms than use of ICT for legal and judicial purposes.

The only problem seems to be that we lack good techno legal institutions that can implement techno legal ICT legal and judicial reforms in India. Except a single techno legal training and consultancy institution managed by perry4law techno legal base (PTLB), we have no institution that can implement use of technology for legal and judicial purposes.

Till the month of February, 2011 we have still to establish the first e-court of India. We have still to streamline and adopt use of online dispute resolution (ODR) in India. Without an active use of ICT, Indian legal and judicial system cannot improve.

The call is for the law minister Mr. Veerappa Moily to take and it is high time for him to deliver results as till now only promises have been made in this regard.

Is Internet Kill Switch A Solution To Cyber Threats?

Internet kill switch (IKS) has been in controversies for long. Legislative exercise to allow President of America to use the IKS in cases of national emergencies has started once again. The crucial question that arises at this time is whether IKS is a solution to growing cyber threats like cyber espionage, cyber warfare and cyber terrorism?

Some experts claim concept of IKS does not exist at all since Internet cannot be killed absolutely by any nation. They have even labeled IKS as a misnomer and suggested that instead of this endemic e-surveillance exercise, countries must concentrate upon better cyber security.

I would not go into the discussion whether IKS can kill or paralyse Internet at all. My limited concern is whether IKS is a solution to growing cyber threats world wide? I believe that IKS is definitely not a substitute for robust and effective cyber security.

While IKS may be a back door attempt to engage in endemic e-surveillance exercises, it has little to do with effective cyber security practices. Cyber criminals all over the world are engaged in stealing sensitive information and compromising more strategic computer systems. Some of them are even stealth in nature with no sign of their existence.

The real threat is from these stealth cyber criminals who have control over many strategic computers. Think about a situation where these cyber criminals get the control of IKS itself. The first such attempt would definitely come from enemy and rouge states. By developing an IKS we would be allowing these enemy states to take control of our cyberspace.

Of course, IKS would be strongly guarded by robust cyber security measures but are these measures sufficient enough? I think they are not because if they are sufficient enough to prevent cyber attacks, we would no more need an IKS. We can deploy the measures meant for IKS itself to guard our own cyberspace from foreign intrusions. Let us think about it before jumping upon the IKS wagon.

Duckduckgo: For Privacy Enthusiastics And Others

While it is still premature to predict whether privacy or efficiency would be the decisive factor for search engines, but one thing is for sure. DuckDuckGo (DDG) is going to stay. Its main strength over other search engines like Google and Yahoo is that it is privacy oriented and is a great combination with the onion routing (TOR) software.

While Google and Yahoo do not provide user friendly results for their services if TOR is used, Bing is an exception. Bing does not show any error like Yahoo or ask for capacha verification like Google while using TOR.

However, when it comes to DDG, not even Bing can match it. This is because of the unique and anonymity features of DDG. If you use DDG through TOR using latest version of Firefox, your privacy is assured to a great extent. Google, Yahoo and Bing fail on this front.

However, some additional steps must be taken by users to get a stronger anonymity. They must manage their plugins and addons and must ensure that their information is not leaked by them. Take special care of java and java scripts through NoScript along with a Firefox browser.

Use DDG and have a safe, secure and private browsing experience.

Is Google Against Use Of Tor Software?

There is a question that has been troubling me for long. The question is whether Google is against use of Privacy safeguards like Tor software? This question arose as one of my friends used the Tor network while opening a new Blog.

It seems Google misunderstood the Tor traffic as malicious activities and removed the blog from its database. The complete details of the same are available at its Help Forum. Fortunately, I got some good suggestions and guidance from one of the Top Contributors there named Nitecruzr.

These suggestions and guidance helped me in understanding much of the procedure of Google and the common mistakes that must be avoided. However, the core question still remains unanswered?

The only question to be considered is whether use of privacy and cyber security safeguards like Tor software is in itself sufficient ground to remove a blog from Google’s database?

If a blog is not a spam blog or otherwise not a malware infected, does the mere use of Tor violates the terms and conditions of Google? I have submitted a review request with Google and keeping in mind their competencies and professional attitude, a result is expected soon.

When Google and others are working in the direction of strengthening the privacy of its users, use of Tor per se should not be any problem. For instance, Google itself is working in the direction of making browsers more secure and anonymous.

We hope Google would not be against privacy of its users as such.

Cyber Crime Cells Of India Lacks Expertise

Law enforcement is a tedious task especially in the present information technology world. Technology has posed many challenges before police forces in India regarding cyber crimes. In the absence of awareness about cyber law of India, police officials in India are avoiding dealing with growing cyber crimes in India.

Even if a case is registered for cyber crime, police officials in India do not possess required expertise to solve the same. For instance, even basic level cyber forensics capabilities are missing in various cyber cells of India. Although cyber cells have been opened in India yet a dominant majority of them are not actually doing anything for solving cyber crimes.

The main reason for this poor performance is lack of cyber law and cyber forensics knowledge. It would be unfair to expect an expert knowledge from police officers in India but they must at least know the basics of cyber law and cyber forensics. They must have at least basic level of techno legal cyber law and cyber forensics trainings.

Home Minister of India Mr. P. Chidambaram must seriously consider projects and initiatives that can help in developing cyber skills of police force in India. Issues like cyber law and cyber forensics have not yet been considered important enough by him so far.

Further, good and effective trainings courses must also be arranged for police force in India that is presently missing. With ever increasing use of technology, police work in India is going to be more challenging. Police force must be prepared for this challenging job.

Blackberry Messenger Service Now An E- Surveillance Tool In India

Research in motion (RIM) has been under tremendous pressure form Indian government to allow e-surveillance and interception of its Blackberry services. In order to safeguard its commercial interests in India, Blackberry has established a framework that would allow Indian intelligence agencies to monitor contents on its messenger service.

Blackberry has now asked the Indian government to issue a directive to the operators to connect to its new automated service that would allow such interceptions. However, this arrangement does not extend to the enterprise Virtual Private Network (VPN) solution, provided through the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) product.

RIM is still maintaining that there can be no change to the security architecture for BES in India or any other country as the decoding of BES emails by RIM is not technically possible. This is so because neither RIM nor the wireless operators are ever in possession of the customers' encryption keys.

India has presently no constitutionally valid phone tapping and lawful interception law. This practically means that Blackberry/RIM is supporting Indian government in its illegal phone tappings and interception exercises.

The BES of RIM is still out of the reach of Indian government because of technology alone. For other purposes as well, Blackberry users must use technology for self defence and to protect their civil liberties.

A research project named RIM Check has also been designed to gather information on how traffic exits the Blackberry network depending on the country in which the user is located. Those wish to analyse their Blackberry traffic to detect illegal e-surveillance by Indian government, can submit their data to this project.

Government Is Responsible For Growing Cyber Crimes In India

Cyber crimes in India have increased at an alarming stage. What is worrisome is the fact that it is the Indian government itself that is responsible for this menace. India has a sole cyber law that is incorporated in the information technology act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000). Though it needed improvements but there was no case for its deterioration to the detriment of national interest of India.

Indian government brought the deleterious information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act, 2008). Through this amendment almost all the cyber crimes have been made bailable and this removed all sorts of deterrence for the cyber criminals in India and world wide. Indian cyber law is already a piecemeal attempt and this amendment further made it a bane for India.

Concerns regarding India becoming a safe heaven for cyber criminals were incessantly raised by techno legal experts of India but Indian government did not pay heed to the same. Naturally, the present situation was bound to arise.

In the interest of India, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh must urgently intervene and ensure that an effective, strong and stringent cyber law is enacted. The present cyber law of India is doing much more harm than any help for India.

RBI Mandated Cyber Due Diligence For Banks In India

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently released a report of its working group on information security, electronic banking, technology risk management, and cyber frauds.

The report covers various areas such as IT Governance, information security (including electronic banking channels like internet banking, ATMs, cards), IT operations, IT services outsourcing, Information System Audit, Cyber frauds, business continuity planning, customer education and legal issues.

The report has also issued many guidelines that Indian banks would be required to follow in order to provide safe and secure technology driven banking. Practically, this means that banks in India would be required to adopt techno driven and cyber law related due diligence requirements.

Indian information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) carries many provisions that may result in liabilities on the part of various banks. With growing cases of cyber crimes and cyber frauds, banks must take both IT Act, 2000 and these guidelines very seriously.

Banks must take a special care of ATM frauds, credit card frauds, online banking and Internet banking frauds, etc. Besides, phishing scams must also be taken care of by banks.

With the present guidelines, banks can no more ignore due diligence requirements that they have been ignoring for long. The earlier banks are prepared for cyber related issues the better it would be for them.

RBI Must Curb Online Banking Frauds In India

The recent decision of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to prevent ATM frauds in India is a welcome step in the right direction. The next step that RBI must take is to strengthen the entire IT infrastructure for banking industry in India.

ATM is just one of the aspects of banking industry. Online banking and Internet banking is still to be made temper proof from cyber criminals. Another challenge is the weak and cyber criminal friendly cyber law of India.

The sole cyber law of India is incorporated in the information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). The Act has made almost all the cyber crimes bailable. For instance, if a person cracks your e-mail account or online banking account, the courts have to release him on bail as a matter of right. He cannot be put in jail and he would go free even after committing the offence of cracking (read hacking) in India.

RBI would have great troubles in meeting this challenge because no matter howsoever effective steps it takes, cyber criminals have great incentives to commit cyber crimes against banking institutions in India, says Praveen Dalal, a Supreme Court Lawyer and leading techno legal expert of India. The banks must use “Techno Legal Solutions” on the one hand and spread “Public Awareness” on the other, suggests Dalal.

It is clear that RBI has to meet great challenges before Indian banking industry can be considered reasonably safe from cyber criminals.

Cracking And Website Defacement Increasing In India

Password cracking and e-mail account cracking has increased significantly in India. Similarly, websites defacement, both governmental as well as private, has become a norm in India. This is happening because the cyber law of India, i.e. information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000) almost gives a clean chit to such cyber criminals.

After the information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2000), almost all cyber crimes, including website defacement and cracking, have become bailable. Even if a cyber criminal is apprehended he must be released on bail as a matter of right.

A pertinent question arises why such a stupid legislation has been enacted by India? The answer is not difficult to find. Industrial lobbying and desire for complete e-surveillance capabilities have made Indian cyber law a cyber criminal friendly legislation. Consequently, India has also become a safe heaven for cyber criminals.

Anybody can commit almost any cyber crime in India and move free. Consider few examples in this regard. The website of India's premier investigation agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was defaced and it remained down for more than a month. Till now no person has been arrested and even if a person would be arrested, he would be released on bail.

A group of crackers, claiming to be from Kashmir, recently cracked a website’s password dedicated to the Bollywood superstar, Amitabh Bacchan and defaced it. Similarly, India Blooms site was also compromised by crackers. The website of Cochin Port Trust (CPT) came under attack on Thursday by a group identified as 'Xtremist and DonZ company' that gained access to site and defaced it. The latest to add to this list is cracking the official e-mail address of the education office of Hoshiarpur from which pornographic material was sent to many schools in this district.

There is an urgent need on the part of prime minister’s office (PMO) India to consider this matter urgently and repeal the troubled cyber law of India. Instead of the present cyber criminal friendly legislation, PMO must come up with an effective and strong cyber law of India. The present cyber law of India is flawed in many aspects that is going against the interests of India at large.

Judicial E-Infrastructure In India Needs Rejuvenation

Technology can help traditional legal and judicial systems of India in many forms. These include online dispute resolution (ODR), e-courts, digitilisation of court’s files and proceedings, online bail applications, etc.

India has been working in this direction but without proper policies and expertise. Although some parts of traditional courts have been computerised yet by and large technology has remained an alien concept for Indian courts.

There is a complete failure on the fronts of ODR, e-courts, digitilisation initiatives, online proceedings, etc. India is confusing computerisation with e-courts and digital judicial services. The truth is that we are still waiting for the establishment of first e-court in India.

We keep on hearing that first e-court has been established in Gujarat or Delhi or some other state. But we do not have a single e-court till now. So much so that even there is no e-court committee or any other similar committee that is presently working for the establishment of e-courts in India.

I think law minister Mr. Veerappa Moily must take some pro active and constructive steps in this regard. Our legal and judicial system badly needs physical and electronic infrastructure. Presently, judicial e-infrastructure in India is in really bad shape.

India must understand the difference between computerisation of courts and e-courts and immediately start working in the direction of establishment of effective judicial e-infrastructure.

Cloud Computing: A New Landmine For Privacy In India

Cloud computing is a cost effective and efficient service provided it is managed as per legal and moral standards. One of the biggest roadblocks for cloud computing is legal and regulatory issues. Cloud computing has been in controversies for violation of legal provisions in general and privacy rights in particular.

In the past telecom companies have been criticised for illegal and unlawful disclosures of private information of their users. For instance, the secret NSA program, working with AT&T and Verizon, recorded over 10 million phone calls between American citizens. This caused a fear among privacy advocates about the extent to which telecommunication companies can monitor their user activity.

Similar fears and contravention applies to cloud computing service providers, especially where there are no privacy laws and data protection laws. Clearly there is no universal or harmonised legal framework regarding cloud computing and telecommunications privacy. It varies from nation to nation and jurisdiction to jurisdiction. India has no dedicated privacy laws, data security laws and data protection laws.

Similarly, cyber security and cloud computing security issues are also by and large unresolved in India. India has no cyber security law in place. Event the sole cyber law of India, i.e. information technology act, 2000 is useless for preventing growing menaced of cyber crimes in India.

With companies like research in motion (RIM) openly declared their intentions to allow cloud computing base data access for blackberry services in India to intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies, this trust deficit has widened further. Fortunately, Google rightly refused to part with encryption keys regarding its Gmail services. This is a bold step on the part of Google and others must also follow the same path.

There is no reason whatsoever that cloud computing would not violate privacy rights, data protection principles and data security practices in India. In fact, there is a very bright possibility that all these unlawful acts would happen in India without any legislative safeguards and court orders.

If you are privacy conscious do not use cloud computing in India and oppose governmental use of the same for public delivery of its services. The fact is that India is not yet ready for cloud computing.

Indian Cyber Defence Must Be Strengthened

Technology and polices do not go well in India. Policy and legislative issues regarding technology are never considered properly in India. We have a weak and criminals friendly cyber law in India, absence of cyber security to protect our cyberspace, inadequate cyber forensics capabilities, lack of legal enablement of ICT systems in India and so on.

The list is endless and there is no need to further add failures in the fields of e-governance, e-readiness and other ICT projects of India to this list. However, what is worrisome is the fact that Indian computers and cyberspace is highly vulnerable to cyber crimes and cyber attacks.

India has no guidelines and policies regarding crucial issues like critical ICT infrastructure protection, protected systems, cracking of crucial and strategic governmental computers and systems, defence force empowerment for cyber warfare, etc.

Even there is no protection against cyber espionage and cyber terrorism in India. This sad position exists in India because our Parliament did not find important enough to ensure legal enablement of ICT systems in India and to ensure strong and robust laws regarding these crucial issues.

What is more frustrating is that India is wasting crores of public money on illegal and unconstitutional projects that have been rightly rejected by countries like US, UK, etc. However, India found these projects worth trying and is eager to throw away crores of public money rather than utilising it for the real and effective betterment of India.

We do not need Aadhar project, Natgrid, CCTNS, e-surveillance and snooping capabilities, etc. These projects are just cash cows that few IT companies of India and abroad are encashing. We need real and effective cyber security and national interest oriented projects.

India is sleeping over crucial issue and is adopting absurd and unconstitutional projects for the sole benefit of few. Industrial lobbying has really taken its toll on the cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics front in India. Let us hope India would wake up from its deep sleep before it is too late. Let us also hope that India would develop timely, effective and robust cyber security offensive and defensive capabilities urgently.

E-Courts In India Needed

Indian judicial system is overburdened and technology can help it in reducing the growing arrears of cases in India. However, there is a problem in adopting and using technology for legal and judicial purposes in India. Legal enablement of ICT systems in India is missing and this makes the use of technology for legal and judicial purposes almost impossible in India.

Take the example of national litigation policy of India (NLPI). Although it carries lots of legal and judicial reforms yet when it comes to use of technology, it is silent about that aspect.

Technology can be used in legal and judicial system of India in many forms. For instance, online dispute resolution (ODR) can be used for resolving many cases out of court as well as while they are pending in courts. Presently, ODR in India is seldom used except by few ODR providers of India.

Similarly, technology can be used for establishing e-courts in India. Unfortunately, till the month of January 2011, we do not have even a single e-court in India. We are still waiting for the establishment of first e-court of India.

E-courts in India cannot be established till we have good techno legal expertise to manage this mission mode project. India has a single techno legal e-courts training and consultancy centre. Obviously, lack of expertise is hindering use of technology for ODR and e-courts purposes in India.

Law minister Veerappa Moily must urgently take some effective and concrete measure so that technology can be an integral part of Indian legal and judicial system.

CBI And Police In India Is Operating Without Laws

Parliamentary democracy is the backbone of any nation that believes in rule of law. This is so because parliament of any nations is primarily responsible for enacting suitable and timely laws so that law and order can be maintained in the society. However, what would happen if there is no parliamentary democracy or the parliament of a nation fails to fulfill its constitutional duties?

Unfortunately, this is exactly what is happening in India these days. Indian Executive is imposing projects and authorities without any legal framework and with no parliamentary oversight at all. Projects like Aadhar, Natgrid, CCTNS and authorities like UIDAI are classic examples of lack of parliamentary democracy in India.

However, something more drastic and bizarre is also present. Even after more than 60 years of getting its independence, Indian law enforcement and intelligence agencies are virtually governed by no legal framework.

Even the premier investigation agency of India known as central bureau of investigation (CBI) of India is not governed by any law. It is only with the draft central bureau of investigation act, 2010 (Bill) that some sort of legal framework has been suggested for CBI.

The draft CBI Act 2010 also needs further improvements and modifications. Further, with the legal framework for CBI, it would also require to hone up its skills regarding cyber law, cyber forensics, cyber security, etc. Recently the website of CBI was defaced and it remained offline for more than a month. This also means that the national informatics centre (NIC) of India also needs to put in place good cyber security policy.

The recent parliamentary session of India was completed wasted and wiped out without any legislative business. With the present bad performance of parliament incidences like these would further undermine its dignity and role. It is high time that parliamentary democracy must be resorted in India that has lost somewhere in the galleries of executive branch of constitution of India.

Legal Education In India Needs Reforms

Legal education in India is still governed by traditional fields like criminal law, civil laws, corporate laws, etc. A majority of law colleges still follow the traditional syllabus. Contemporary topics like cyber law, competition law, private international law, etc are taught in very few law colleges of India. Further, even if these subjects are taught in some colleges, practical aspects of the same are seldom taught in these law colleges.

Surprisingly even after the graduation in law, subsequent higher legal education is an exception than the norm. Very few students opt for masters and doctorate degrees. This is undermining the research capabilities of India in legal fields.

Surprisingly, concepts like lifelong learning in India (LLI) or continuing legal education in India (CLE) are still not much known in India. Even the law ministry is not very enthusiastic regarding CLE.

The present legal education is regulated by the bar council of India (BCI) that instead of improving the quality of legal education imposed the bar examination upon fresh law graduates. Fortunately, it has been postponed and may never see the light of the day.

Both BCI and law ministry must come out with a clear legal education reform policy that meets the requirements of contemporary times. For instance we need institutions like PTLB that provide practical techno legal trainings and education.

Further, with the growing use of information technology, e-learning and online platforms can further strengthen the legal education and training in India. This would also extend the reach of qualitative law colleges and institutions to areas where opening of traditional law colleges is not possible.

Law minister Veerappa Moily must urgently draft a concept paper on legal education reforms in India and include many concepts and areas that are still missing from the legal education of India.

India Needs A New And Better Cyber Law

Cyber law of India has become a nightmare due to growing interference of industrial lobbying in India. Thanks to the cyber criminal friendly nature of our information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000), now any cyber criminals can commit almost any cyber crime and go free.

This is so because the information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2008) has made almost all cyber crimes bailable i.e. the cyber criminals are entitled to bail as a matter of right.

Experts feel that, India does not have strong and effective cyber laws to deal with crucial issues like critical infrastructure, cyber security, cyber forensics, etc. 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, says Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Techno Legal ICT Law Firm Perry4Law and Supreme Court Lawyer.

Another aspect that has made the present cyber law of India unconstitutional is absence of privacy laws and data protection laws in India vis-à-vis e-surveillance and Internet censorship powers. In the absence of Privacy and Data Protection Laws and Unaccountable and Unregulated E-Surveillance Provisions under the amended IT Act 2008, the E-Surveillance, Internet Censorship and Website Blocking Powers cannot stand the “Constitutionality Test” of Constitution of India, opines Praveen Dalal.

The fact is that ministry of communication and information technology (MCIT) has not been performing the functions and duties entrusted to it by Indian government. MCIT needs a complete overhaul and scrutiny of prime minister’s office (PMO).

To start with, MCIT must urgently start the initiative of drafting a new and effective cyber law of India. Once that is done, we can get rid of the bane named information technology act, 2000.

Aadhar Project And UIDAI Must Be Scrapped

One of the most controversial projects of India is unique identification project of India (UID project of India) or Aadhar project of India. The Aadhar project is openly and blatantly violating various civil liberties of Indian citizens. Even the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) is devoid of any constitutional and legal status.

If Aadhar project and UIDAI are clearly unconstitutional project/authority why is Indian government wasting crores of money upon them? This is the most frustrating aspect of Aadhar project and UIDAI.

The only answer seems to be so that the Indian government can enhance its e-surveillance capabilities by clubbing Aadhar project with national population register (NPR) of India, national intelligence grid (Natgrid), crime and criminal tracking network and systems (CCTNS), etc. These are only known projects and there may be many projects that Indian citizens may not be aware of.

According to Praveen Dalal, Supreme Court lawyer and leading techno legal expert of India, there is no second opinion about the fact that Aadhar Project and UIDAI are “Unconstitutional” in the absence of a “Constitutionally Sound Law” in this regard. This is more so when there are no dedicated Privacy Laws in India and Data Protection Laws in India, opines Praveen Dalal.

Surprisingly, the government of India has deliberately abstained from enacting suitable privacy and data protection laws in India. On the contrary, it amended the sole cyber law of India contained in the information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000) through the information technology amendment act, 2008 (IT Act 2008).

After this amendment, unregulated, unaccountable and unconstitutional powers were obtained by Indian government regarding e-surveillance and electronic eavesdropping in India. This amendment was primarily made to accommodate projects like Natgrid, Aadhar, CCTNS, etc.

Even there is no lawful interception law in India. The present E-Surveillance and Phone Tapping practices adopted by India are “Unconstitutional” in the absence of a Constitutionally Sound Lawful Interception Law, says Praveen Dalal.

If we analyse the entire scenario, there are very strong ground to scrap Aadhar project and UIDAI till proper legal framework is at place. May be our Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh would take initiative in this regard before it is too late.