Saturday, May 2, 2009

Data Security Problems In India Getting Chronic

Cyber Law in India is in bad shape and so are cyber security and cyber forensics in India. The problem lies with the fact that India does not have “Legal Enablement of ICT System in India”. The Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000) is the sole cyber law of India that is not at all addressing the requirements of cyber law, cyber security, cyber forensics, data security, data protection, etc in India.

The Government of India (GOI) was lethargic enough to not to touch the IT Act, 2000 for full 8 years. Even after proposing the amendments to the IT Act, 2000 the GOI further weakened and destablised it. Fortunately, the proposed Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (IT Amendment Act 2008) seems to be stalled as it has not yet been “Notified” even after a lapse of more than four months of passing the same. The legal position in this regard is that IT Act, 2000 is still “Unamended” and the proposed IT Amendment Act, 2008 has no “legal significance”.

Other allied problems pertain to Data Protection Law in India, Data Security Problems in India, etc. Data breaches and cyber crimes in India cannot be reduced till we make strong cyber laws. We cannot do so by mere declaring a cat as a tiger.

The GOI is also clueless about data security and cyber security. The notion of data security and cyber security is presently revolving around an insignificant and almost unrelated aspect of encryption level, which the GOI can neither control nor should it endeavour to do so. There is no reasonable and fair law in the World that can force the netizens to adopt a particular “Standard” of online communication and dealing. The GOI is killing whatever cyber security measures that netizens adopt and apply themselves by formulating rules and regulations in an ignorant manner and without understanding the technology and its applications. In short, the GOI is trying to beat the wind by a stick says Mr. Praveen Dalal.

The first step that the GOI must take is to get help of knowledgeable experts of techno-legal field who can in fact contribute for strong and effective legal enablement of ICT systems in India. India cannot do much with industry inputs and government expertise as they have failed India so far.

AUTHOR: CATHY

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