International Cyber Crime Treaty And India

Cyber law is no more confined to the limits of a nation alone. Being extra territorial in nature, the cyber law of a nation often travels far beyond the territorial jurisdictions of a nation. Realising the practical difficulties of this extra territorial nature of various cyber law, an International cyber law treaty was formulated at the international level.

However, there is no relationship between this international cyber crime treaty and India as India is not a signatory to the same. India is still governed by its distinct cyber law incorporated in the information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000).

Recently, efforts were made at the United Nations (UN) to adopt a “more comprehensive” and “truly global” International cyber crime treaty, informs Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi based law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India. However, the proposal was rejected by UN and till now there is no globally acceptable cyber crime treaty in existence, informs Dalal.

Even the Indian cyber law is far from perfect and it has decayed. It has been amended by the information technology amendment act 2008 (IT Act 2008) that made the sole cyber law of India a big mess. There are no stringent provisions to punish cyber criminals as almost all the cyber crimes have been made bailable by this amendment.

Presently, India is neither following a good model cyber law based upon international standards nor is legislating an effective law that can meet the challenges of contemporary digital economy.

The present cyber law of India is worst than no cyber law at all and it must be repealed as soon as possible. This is more so when India has decided not to sign any international cyber crime treaty and stick to its own domestic legislation.

Cyber Crimes Are Increasing In India

Cyber crimes in India are increasing at an alarming rate and Indian government and department of information technology (DIT), India are doing nothing in this regard. In fact, the DIT proposed very weak, ineffective and counter productive amendments to the already weak cyber law of India in the past.

The information technology amendment act 2008 (IT Act 2008) amended the information technology act 2000 (IT Act 2000) and made it a base for committing various cyber crimes openly.

According to Praveen Dalal, the leading techno legal experts of India, India has been experiencing an increase in cyber crimes like hacking, spamming, phishing, etc due to many factors. The first and foremost factor among them is the lack of an effective and stringent cyber crime law in India.

The cyber law in India is not effective instead it is counterproductive. India is the only country in the world that has the provision of bail in cyber crime cases. It means even if a person commits cyber crimes like phishing, hacking or any similar cyber crime or contravention and is somehow caught by the Police force, he would be released on bail as a matter of right. This provision of cyber crime has made India a safe place for cyber criminals, warn Dalal.

Besides, there is a lack of adequate cyber forensics and cyber security capabilities in India that helps in the growth of cyber crimes. Irrespective what the government of India and DIT say, the position is really worrisome.

Time has come for the Indian government to amend the IT Act 2000 so that cyber criminals can not only be caught by the police but also get severe punishment.

Information Technology Amendment Act 2009 Of India

Cyber law of India requires rejuvenation. In this interview with Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the Leading Techno-Legal Expert of India he suggested that the Government of India (GOI) must come up with the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2009. In fact he has been suggesting that there is a need to “reformulate” the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (IT Act, 2008) as it is going to create lot of problems for India in future. Already “wrong prosecutions” have brought bad name for India in general and Indian law enforcement in particular.

Human Rights violations in cyberspace are bound to happen in India in the absence of good . It seems the GOI has finally woken up from its sleep and is plannlegal enablement of ICT systems in Indiaing to bring further amendments in the existing Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000). Union Minister for Law M Veerappa Moily said the Government will amend the existing laws, including the IT Act, 2000 to combat cyber crimes in the country. There was a misconception that the IT Act, 2008 which was passed last year, was for dealing with cyber crimes. It was mainly for legalising e-commerce, he added.

It is clear that GOI would come up with Information Technology Amendment Act, 2009 (IT Act, 2009) very soon. It has finally accepted the suggestions and recommendations of Praveen Dalal in the larger interest of India. It has accepted that India needs a strong and stringent legal regime to fight growing menace of cyber crimes in India. Perry4Law has welcomed this step of GOI and assured that it would provide all necessary expertise and assistance for the enactment of IT Act, 2009 so that the same may be introduced in the Parliament this year.

Information Technology Amendment Act 2008: Time To Abandon It Has Arisen

What seems to be lonely battle has become a collective war. The precursor and axis of the protest against the “Unconstitutional” Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (Act, 2008) can be safely attributed to Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the leading Techno-Legal Expert of India. Fortunately, the Act, 2008 has not been “Notified” yet and there seems to be very little chances of the same.

Interestingly, other cyber law experts have also joined the debate and openly supported Mr. Praveen Dalal regarding his stand on the proposed amendments. Concerns regarding excessive e-surveillance without proper safeguards received maximum support.

Now even the media has criticised the proposed amendments. Business Standard reports that regulation of websites in the manner proposed by the rules to the amendment is unpractical. It maintains that “The government-appointed officers, not below the rank of a joint secretary, will determine the nature of the offence and levy a penalty. But government officers are not judicial officers. Are they qualified to define, for instance, what goes against ‘friendly relations with foreign states’ and what is ‘offensive’ content? In the offline world, it is judges who do the job, and the government has no power to (for instance) cancel a newspaper’s registration merely because it has criticised a friendly country (do we have any countries that are officially listed as unfriendly?). The potential for misuse is therefore obvious. Surely, a more nuanced approach to the issues posed by the Internet is in order, not the use of a hammer for every minor infringement”.

This piece of Business Standard has very accurately defined some of the problems with the proposed amendments and their rules. There are other issues as well which may open the floodgates of litigations and problems the moment Act 2008 is brought into force. However, the Government of India (GOI) is still a moot spectator to this absurd law making and rule formulation.

The first thing that the GOI must do is to “Drop” the proposed amendments and come up with better Information Technology Amendment Act, 2009 (Act, 2009) as soon as possible. Secondly, it would be a good idea to seek advice of Techno-Legal Experts this time before formulating the Act, 2009.

SOURCE: ITVOIR

Ignorance Or Deliberate Misleading: The Hung Cyber Law Of India

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a real enabler that improves the efficiency and brings transparency and accountability. However, in the Indian context the same has failed to get the desired results. This is because the Governmental corridors have no place for ICT and there is no accountability of those who are managing the ICT.

The self contradictory shades of Indian ICT skills and expertise is really amusing. While Indian citizens are famous for their expertise and professional skills yet Indian Government and bureaucrats are infamous for their ignorance. The latest example being the proposed Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (Act 2008).

Initially the lack of knowledge and insight was attributable to a self-claimed cyber law observer named Na Vijayshanker (Naavi) who claimed that the proposed Act has been “notified”. While Naavi being a non-lawyer with no knowledge about law at all and limited knowledge about cyber law and techno-legal issues yet Indian bureaucrats like Dr. Gulshan Rai must not show ignorance about the law making process and its coming into force.

There is a clear difference between “publication” of an information for public purposes and “notification” of a statute “under official gazette”. Even a query to clarify the issue remained unanswered.

AUTHOR: EDITOR LNAV

SOURCE: OPEDNEWS

Websites Blocking In India

Censorship and e-surveillance have taken a nasty shape in India. Barely four months after dropping its proposal of forcing TV channels to show only an "authorised" feed during security emergencies, the government is now seeking to censor news portals and other websites, that too even at normal times.

Concerns regarding censorship and e-surveillance have been raised times and again by many techno-legal experts of India. Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law, has suggested that the Congress led Government must openly declare that the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 would be given a “fresh look” in the forthcoming Parliament session. With issues like cyber terrorism, cyber security, cyber forensics, hacking, wireless hacking, phishing, spam, child pornography, etc troubling India, a casual and weak law would not serve the purpose. In fact, there is an emergent need of formulating Information Technology Amendment Act, 2009 by the new Government and Parliament as soon as possible.

It is good to see that media has taken up the issue. The problem is that the same seems to be guided by the concern of “self-protection” rather than raising a voice against weak, ineffective and redundant laws dealing with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in India. It would be a good idea if the media takes firm stand against the proposed Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 as the same is “unconstitutional”. Once brought into force, it would violate valuable “Civil Liberties” of Indian citizens and Indian media. The same would be pressed against the media as well so it is better to protest before it is too late.

Fortunately, the Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 has “not been notified yet”. This means for all practical purposes the old Information Technology Act, 2000 still governs the position. Let us hope that the suggestions of Mr. Praveen Dalal would be accepted by the Indian Government and Indian Parliament for the larger interest of all.

AUTHOR: SHAYAM PRASAD

SOURCE: MYNEWS

China Is Strengthening Its Cyber Law

Cyber law is gaining importance all over the World. China has become the latest country to adopt regulations pertaining to cyber law. A recent news report says that although the Western media has been awash with stories of Chinese hacking for years, cybercrime was until recently governed by three articles added to China's criminal code in 1997. The laws were out-of-date and "failed to correlate proportionately with the tremendous social harm" caused by cybercrime, according to a recent paper on Chinese cyber-law published in the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics. However, the paper concludes that the country's laws are still in the early stages of development. "Gaps and inadequacies exist in traditional offense provisions". Until the new law was passed in February, computer crimes carried a maximum of three years' jail time. That has now been extended to seven years, and the definition of computer crime has also been broadened.

In the Indian context the Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act, 2000) is the sole cyber law of India. Although India took an “early advantage” of enacting a cyber law yet it “failed to keep pace” with the contemporary requirements. The industry lobbying has kept it soft, weak and criminal friendly. The proposed Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (Act 2008) has further complicated the scenario as it has suggested a cyber law framework that is not conducive for India.

Fortunately, the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 has “not been notified” yet. This gives the new Government and next Parliament in session a chance to “rectify the mistake” they have commited in the recent past. Even Dr. Gulshan Rai of Department of Information Technology (DIT) has “not confirmed” that the amendments have been notified.

The speed of cyber law reforms in India is really worrisome. With the present speed and expertise, even countries that have just enacted cyber laws would overtake India in this field. There is an emergent need for the new Government and nest Parliament to give these issues a serious thought.

The Ignorance About Cyber Law Of India

The self contradictory shades of Indian ICT skills and expertise is really amusing. While Indian citizens are famous for their expertise and professional skills yet Indian Government and bureaucrats are infamous for their ignorance. The latest example being the proposed Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (Act 2008). Initially the lack of knowledge and insight was attributable to a self-claimed cyber law observer named Na Vijayshanker (Naavi) who claimed that the proposed Act has been notified. While Naavi being a non-lawyer with no knowledge about law at all and limited knowledge about cyber law and techno-legal issues yet Indian bureaucrats like Dr. Gulshan Rai must not show ignorance about the law making process and its coming into force. Even a query to clarify the issue remained unanswered. For the sake of public interest, this article is clarifying the legal position in this regard. In nutshell, the proposed Act 2008 cannot come into force till the Central Government “Notify” the same as per the requirements of Section 1(2) of the same. The same has not been done yet there cannot be any question of the Act 2008 coming into force. All rumours about the coming into force of the Act 2008 must be ignored.

SOURCE: ITVOIR

Cyber Terrorism In India

Cyber Terrorism in India is in limelight but for the wrong reasons. It seems the media and law enforcement in India are too much fascinated with the term “Cyber Terrorism” that they have not even done their homework properly. Recently, the anti-terrorism squad (ATS), investigating the “terror email” has decided not to book the accused for cyber terrorism as there was no intention to carry out any act of terror. Further, the news report also claims that according to an amendment in the Information Technology Act, which came into force in February this year, anyone indulging in cyber terrorism could be sentenced to life imprisonment. Prior to this, even the sending of threat emails was considered “hacking”.

Let us first analyse the stand of ATS. It seems the ATS has become the all powerful authority of India and it has the power to make the laws, make them operational, execute them and interpret them as per their choice. This is so because they have thought to invoke a provision that does not exist at all in India. The Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act 2000) is absolutely silent on the aspect of “Cyber Terrorism” and the proposed Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (Amendments 2008) is still inapplicable in the absence of a “Notification” by the Central Government. Till now there has been no notification by the Central Government in this regard. So from which law the ATS could have charged the accused with Cyber Terrorism is still a great mystery.

Similarly, the reporter of this news item has no hint whatsoever that the proposed Amendments 2008 have not yet come into force. So there is no question of applying its provisions to this case. Strangely enough, I cannot find any incidence where sending offensive e-mail is considered to be a case of “hacking” in India either as per the IT Act 2000 or even by the Amendments 2008.

Of course, if the Amendments 2008 have been notified at the time of writing of the reported news then this story makes lot of sense. The fault lies with the Government of India that failed to make clear the status of the amendments.

It seems there is a lack of “cyber law awareness” in India. The law enforcement and media must be responsible in their dealings and claims regarding cyber law and other techno-legal issues. They must acquire some good knowledge about cyber law of India so that not only cyber crimes may be dealt with properly but also there is a culture of “responsible journalism” in India.

Updates of 2009, 2010 and 2011

Also see this following updates in this regard:

(1) Cyber Terrorism is a National Security Hazard

(2) Cyber Terrorism against India

(3) Cyber Terrorism in India and its Preparedness

(4) India is facing serious Cyber Threats

(5) Cyber Security Policy of India

(6) National Security Policy of India is required

(7) Indian Crisis Management Plan for Cyber attacks and Cyber Terrorism

(8) Securing Critical National Infrastructure from Cyber Attacks

(9) Critical Infrastructure protection in India

Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 Of India Has No Legal Applicability

Cyber Law in India is going through a bad phase. The proposed Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 has further complicated the scenario. The issues of cyber security and cyber forensics have also struck the final nail in the coffin. There is an emergent need to reformulate the Information Technology Act 2000 of India by introducing suitable and contemporary cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics issues, says Mr. Praveen Dalal. Even the Government of India (GOI) seems to be in quandary over the proposed amendments and very soon the new Government may come up with a better draft of the amendments.

Recently there has been lot of confusion regarding the status of proposed Information Technology Amendment Act, 2008 (IT Amendment Act 2008). This confusion is required to be cleared. There is a need to clarify the stage at which a proposed legislation becomes applicable and comes into force. The proposed IT Amendment Act 2008 is still “NOT Applicable” and the previous Information Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act, 2000) is still applicable. There has been no change whatsoever that the proposed IT Amendment Act 2008 has made in the original IT Act, 2000. No new rights and liabilities are arising and can be claimed from the proposed IT Amendment Act 2008 and all rights and liabilities would be governed by the unamended IT Act, 2000 alone.

As per the governmental sources, the IT Act 2008 has not yet been notified. Section 1(2) of the IT Amendment Act 2008 mandates that the Act has to be notified by Central Government in Official Gazette to make it an enforceable law. Till the central government actually notifies the date, the IT Act 2008 would remain a paper work alone, says Mr. Praveen Dalal. There has been no sign of “Notification" of the same.

The misinformed information spreading these days should not confuse all those who are interested in the Indian cyber law. All that the Central Government has done is publication of the “fact” that the IT Act 2008 has received the “President’s assent”. It does not tell anything else. Those who are not familiar with the process of law making and its notification have been confused by this declaration and spreading rumours about its notification.

The cyber law observers must consult the only authentic source of information in this regard. If the IT Amebdment Act 2008 is made applicable, the same would be notified at the abovementioned techno-legal resource. It would be a good idea if the government openly declares that the IT Amendment Act 2008 has been withdrawn or would be reformulated by the Parliament of India in the next session.

AUTHOR: EDITOR LNAV

Cyber Law And Cyber Security In India

The elections fever is gripping India but there seems to be no efforts regarding streamlining legal enablement of ICT systems in India. Cyber law in India is weak, cyber security missing and cyber forensics capabilities non-existent.

The Parliament of India passed the Information Technology Amendment Bill, 2008 (Bill 2008) without any debate or discussion. All laws, including the Bill, 2008, are prima facie unconstitutional but neither our Judiciary nor the President of India found any problems with that. The Bill 2008 got President’s approval on 5th February, 2009 without the President even thinking once about its ill effects. Except Mr. Praveen Dalal none seems to have protested about this situation. Fortunately, as a result of this the proposed Bill 2008 seems to have been definitely “withdrawn”.

Even judges of Indian Supreme Court have shown their dissatisfaction with the existing cyber law of India. All these developments have even forced the officers of the government of India to admit that the Bill 2008 requires further refinement and strength. IT Secretary Jainder Singh had declared that the ministry would shortly come up with fresh regulations to be added to Bill 2008 as there was criticism that the bill takes little care of the identified issues.

Similarly, cyber security in India and cyber forensics in India are also missing. The government must not only enact a sound cyber law but also establish cyber security and cyber forensics capabilities. The government must also train judiciary, lawyers, police officers, intelligence agencies, etc in this regard. It is high time that India must do something regarding these aspects.

AUTHOR: RAM K KAUSHIK

Political Agendas, Lies And Gullible Indians

Indian elections drama is once again unfolding. Political parties are covering all the aspects of economic development as well as launch pads of political mileage. What is surprising is that the issues covered by these agendas and manifestos are so broad and important that no political party of India can give effect to them at all. All of us are aware that not even 10% of these promises would see the light of the day. Still Indian population is gullible in nature and we would give our future in the hands of those who least care for us for another 5 years. The fact remains that neither BJP nor Congress can move away from their traditional political promises as they have been used time and again to fool Indians. I would not go into the details of all the promises, agendas and manifestos but would confine myself to those issues that cover Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

While BJP has come up with an IT Agenda, Congress seems to be indifferent towards ICT once again. The truth of these agendas and manifestos cannot be ascertained till we are made fool once again by a collation government. However, there are some very absurd events taking place in India in the meanwhile.

Firstly, the Parliament of India passed the Information Technology Amendment Bill, 2008 (Bill 2008) without any debate or discussion. All laws, including the Bill, 2008, are prima facie unconstitutional but neither our Judiciary nor the President of India found any problems with that. The Bill 2008 got President’s approval on 5th February, 2009 without the President even thinking once about its ill effects. Except Mr. Praveen Dalal none seems to have protested about this situation. Fortunately, as a result of this the proposed Bill 2008 seems to have been “withdrawn”.

Secondly, ICT must be used as a tool of development rather than as a means of harassment. Excessive and illegal e-surveillance eliminates the chances of effective use of ICT on the one hand and operates as an opponent of e-governance on the other. E-governance presupposes a free, fair and transparent public dealing in the cyberspace. Of late India has been treading on the wrong path of becoming an excessive surveillance State rather being a technology knowledge driven society. The recent example of mandating the e-mail companies to maintain their e-mail servers in India is a very novice decision. It only shows the ignorance about cyber security and ICT management issues in India. It is not clear whether Congress led government has come up with this idea or it is a work of government departments like Department of Information Technology (DIT) or Department of Telecommunications (DOT). Whoever has suggested this idea has no knowledge how Internet works and cyber security is ensured.

India needs good legal framework for technology, sound cyber security and effective cyber forensics expertise. The fill in gaps actions would only ridicule India in front of the entire world. It would be better if India come up with good ICT strategies and policies that are not only sensible but also possible to be implemented.

AUTHOR: V.K.SINGH

SOURCE: MYNEWS