Critical ICT Infrastructure Protection In India Is Urgently Required

The Infrastructure security trends in India are not very encouraging and to make the situation worst we have weak cyber law in India (IT Act, 2000). We have to develop technologies and capabilities to protect Indian citizens in areas such as power, transport, civil aviation, etc. Additionally, we have to increase the security of infrastructure and utilities supporting arms such as ICT, transport, and services in the financial and administrative domain.

Critical ICT infrastructure protection in India must be taken seriously in the larger interest of Indian citizens. Crisis management by improving security systems integration is the need of the hour and a dedicate effort is required in this direction.

Agrees Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the Leading Techno-Legal Specialist of India*. He maintains that presently critical ICT infrastructure protection in India has not got the attention of national policy makers and there is a long gap to cover before we can protect our critical infrastructures. He opined that India does not have a good ICT Policy and this is resulting in weak cyber security, inadequate cyber forensics capabilities and poor cyber laws.

It is clear that India has to play a pro-active role in this direction to avoid serious damage to Indian infrastructure. The first step seems to be to make stringent and good cyber law in this regard as soon as possible. Thankfully, the terrible Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (IT Act 2008) has been rightly rejected by the Indian government and the same has “not been notified” to prevent further degradation of the already weak cyber law of India.

*Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law, is the Leading Techno-Legal Specialist of India and is an Internationally renowned Expert in the fields of Cyber Forensics, Cyber Security, Cyber Law, etc. Both him and Perry4Law are “authorities” on techno-legal issues like critical infrastructure protection and are internationally renowned in this regard.

SOURCE: ITVOIR

India Is Heading Towards The Cyber Crime Nation Of The World

Thanks to the weakest cyber law of the world, India is heading towards becoming the cyber crime nation of the world. This is not the first time that similar concerns have been raised. Previously, Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law, the leading techno-legal ICT law firm of India has cautioned that India is not only suffering from malware attacks but is also emerging as the focal point for cyber crime activities.

India is fast emerging as a major hub of cybercrime as recession is driving computer-literate criminals to electronic scams, claimed a study by researchers at the University of Brighton.

Titled 'Crime Online: Cybercrime and Illegal Innovation', the study states that cybercrime in India, China, Russia and Brazil is a cause of "particular concern" and that there has been a "leap in cybercrime" in India in recent years, partly fuelled by the large number of call centres.

"One recent report ranked India in 2008 as the fourteenth country in the world hosting phishing websites. Additionally, the booming of call centres in India has generated a niche for cybercriminal activity in harvesting data", the report maintained.

It is sad that India is doing nothing to improve this position. There is an emergent need to reformulate Indian cyber laws like IT act, 2000 and make them more stringent and effective.

Google Revealed The Blogger Identity

In January, the 37-year-old Ms. Cohen sued Google after the search engine giant declined to provide her with the identity of the blogger who made five posts on the "Skanks of NYC" blog in August of 2008.

Although Ms. Cohen's lawsuit received widespread global attention because of its connection to Google, such cases are not uncommon online, where users will often push the boundaries of free speech behind a perceived curtain of anonymity.

"Requiring an intermediary, whether it's an ISP [Internet service provider] or a search engine, to disclose the information they have off of an IP address or an email address is pretty common," said Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa professor who holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law.

"But I think it happens a bit behind the scenes ... and sometimes it takes these higher-profile cases for people to better understand that, where required, intermediaries will disclose whatever information they have and that veil of anonymity that some people think they have isn't quite as strong as they think."

Google declined to comment directly on the lawsuit, opting instead to issue a brief statement saying the company sympathizes with anyone who winds up the victim of cyber bullying. "We also take great care to respect privacy concerns and will only provide information about a user in response to a subpoena or other court order," the company said. "If content is found by a court to be defamatory, we will of course remove it immediately."

SOURCE: NATIONAL POST