National Netizen’s Rights Commission Required in India
Cyber Cafe Regulation.. Some thoughts after ITA 2008
February 24: After the passage of the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 the amended Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA-2008) has substantially changed the Cyber Cafe regulatory scenario in India. In the past, it was the State Governments who took the initiative as part of the e-Governance measure to manage the law and order situation in their respective jurisdictions and passed Cyber Cafe regulations as either a notification under Section 90 of ITA 2000 or under the Police Act of the respective state. ...
In order to generate an action plan to ensure that Cyber Cafes are properly regulated in their own interest as well as in the interest of Cyber Security, an action plan on the following lines is suggested for consideration of the Central and State Governments. These are meant for further debate and refinement as may be required....More
IT Companies... It is Time to Act on Legal Compliance
Feb 20: The President of India has given her assent to the Information Technology
Act amendment bill 2008 on February 5th 2009. With this development the act
is now law in India. What is required is notification of rules that may be
necessary to implement the Act and notification of the date of
effectiveness if required.
There is a group of Cyber Law observers in India who are trying their best to
spread a rumour that the Act would be withdrawn. Supported by the vested
interests in business who are opposed to the security oriented provisions
of the Act, these persons are undertaking a media campaign which includes
planting of stories in Internet complete with posting of supportive
comments in different names.
IT industry is advised to ignore such misleading campaigns since they need
to take several security compliance measures once the law becomes effective
and earlier they start this exercise, better it would be in terms of
execution. .
More
Conspiracy to abort Information Technology Act amendments.. advantage BJP
The recent noises being made in the Indian media after ASSOCHAM orchestrated a campaign on the amendments proposed to ITA 2000 indicate a conspiracy by vested interests to revert the law to an Intermediary friendly form.I propose to address some of the objections that ASSOCHAM has cited to suggest that the amendments should be aborted and why I consider them as untenable...Details
Cyber Terrorism center suspected at Bangalore
February 18: Some internet observers have raised a suspicion that a nexus has been identified between Kashmiri Terrorists and some spamsters based in Bangalore. According to this observation published at offstumped.nationalinterest.in, there is a You Tube media channel by name Khaleel media which contained blatantly terrorist content in the past. One of the spam mails generated by a server with IP address 59.99.72.80 identified as being hosted by BSNL is said to contain reference to "Khaleel Media". It is speculated that the spam may be either for generating revenue for terrorist activities or for steganographic message distribution. The observation indicates how Cyber intelligence from Netizens can help the State in fighting terrorism if the resources are properly tapped. ..Detailed Article at offstumped
Impersonation of Naavi
February 11: I would like to keep the visitors of naavi.org informed that of late there have been cases of impersonation on the web using the name "naavi". In one sense it appears that the name has become a little popular to be considered worthy of impersonation. But there is a danger of it being used irresponsibly causing misunderstandings and reputation loss for me. Already Naavi.com is being cyber squatted and I am contemplating legal action to get it back. Now I find that a person who calls himself Chetan Pardhake of Maharashtra has created a profile of himself on Orkut but in the website reference he has used http://www.naavi.org as his website. (Please refer here). I have today requested to him that it has to be removed and also reported it as abuse at Orkut.com. Some time back a matrimonial portal and earlier a job portal had bought google search ad so that any search of "naavi" displays their ad. This has since been removed.
Conficker Virus downs French Airforce
Feb 09: Conficker Virus is reported to have affected French Airforce data base and the aircrafts were unable to take off since they were not able to download their flight plans. Though Microsoft had warned about the vulnerability in October itself, it appears that it had been ignored by the French military. Even the French Navy appears to have been affected by the same virus. The incident highlights the risk of "Cyber Attacks" pulverizing the physical military and is a warning to all countries including India which is under constant war threat. Article in telegraph.uk
Is ITA 2000 Stringent Enough on Cyber Criminals?
Feb 08: Now ASSOCHAM has expressed an opinion that the new version of the Act after the amendments is still "Criminal Friendly", and has to be "Further hardened". ...I hope that they review their stand and join hands with Naavi's demand for an appropriate safety mechanisms to be built in so that no member of the ASSOCHAM or any Netizen would feel sorry about the amendments... More
ITA 2000 amendment Bill 2008 signed by President
Feb 08: According to information received by Naavi.org the ITA 2000 amendment Bill 2008 has received the assent of the President on February 05, 2009.
Strict Rules under Formation for ITA 2000
February 6: Secretary, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Mr. Jainder Singh said that his Ministry would shortly come out with fresh regulations to be added to IT Amendment Bill 2008 before the President gives its assent to it as there are criticism that the Bill takes little care of the identified issues. Mr. Gulshan Rai, a senior functionary in the Ministry of Information Technology who is responsible for drafting the IT Amendment Bill 2008 said that if some lacuna exists in it, the Ministry will make amend and frame new rules and regulations so that all concerns of industry are adequately addressed to. Report in Assocham
How to Prevent Abuse of Powers under Sec 69 etc
February 6: The passage of the ITA 2000 amendments have surprisingly evoked conflicting reports from the observers. Naavi.org has gone on record stating that the "Amendments proposed in the ITA 2000 Amendment Bill 2006 as presented on December 15, 2006 to the Parliament were so as to weaken the law. However the amendments made in the ITA 2000 amendment Bill 2008 presented on December 15, 2008 which amended the earlier bill is extremely stringent. While agreeing that the Government had every reason to assume enormous powers in view of the security needs prevailing in the country, Naavi.org has been expressing its concern about the possible abuse of the powers especially those conferred under Sections 69,69A and 69B of the Act. Some of these have been captured in the earlier articles Concern for Privacy Rights Vs National Security-, and Impact on IT Companies.
An article that appeared in Indian Express today titled "Yes, Snooping is Allowed" also highlights the difference between the powers now given under ITA 2000 and the powers for telephone tapping under Indian Telegraph Act.
ASSOCHAM takes a Contrarian View about ITA 2000 Amendments
February 6:ASSOCHAM has surprised Cyber Law observers in India with its strong Press Release dated 4th February 2009, urging the Government not to enact ITA 2000 amendments since it does not provide "Data Protection". It has also acted with alacrity calling for a workshop on 5th February 2009 to discuss the issues.
This show of commitment to get a "Data Protection Friendly ITA 2000" is very strange since in the past ASSOCHAM did not evince any interest on the legislation particularly over the last three years when Naavi.org and a few others have been crying hoarse on the proposed amendments.
When the amendments were first proposed by an expert committee followed by a version of the amendment bill presented to the Parliament in 2006, Naavi.org called the proposal "Criminal Friendly" and that the "Amendments will turn a Tiger into a Pussy Cat" (Please see the series of articles written on ITAA 2005). In the three years from August 2005 to December 2008, when discussions were raging on the amendments, ASSOCHAM did not think the proposed legislation did not help Data Protection or it was Criminal friendly. Now suddenly, it feels so when most of us have started hinting that the amendments were perhaps too stringent and in some parts even draconian.
Though agreeing with the need for a strong law in the current circumstances, Naavi.org has been urging that there is a need for appropriate safeguards against abuse of the law and hence is pressing for a "National Netizen's Rights Commission", "State Netizen Rights Advisory Board" etc.
Today's article in Indian Express titled "Yes, Snooping is Allowed", highlights the concern.
ASSOCHAM has not made public its report which leads to the drastic conclusion. We feel that Section 43A which provides compensation for data security breach to the extent of Rs 5 crores, Section 72A which provides criminal liabilities for data security breach, the definition of "Sensitive Personal Data" and "Reasonable Security Practices" will together provide some framework for data protection which was hither to absent. Even Sections 69, 69A and 69 B can be used for ensuring investigation and prosecution of data criminals.
So the statement that the amendments does not provide data protection does not appear to be founded on sound grounds. We therefore look forward to more information from ASSOCHAM on why it is leading the path of recommending withdrawal of the Bill. ( Naavi.org did say that the Bill should be returned by the President immediately after December 23 for the reasons that the Bill was not debated and the details were not available for public scrutiny. It was only later that it was found that substantial changes have occurred between the earlier version of the Bill and what was passed and hence, there was no reason for us to continue the demand. On the other hand Naavi is now working on the setting up of appropriate safeguards to prevent abuse)
The current view taken by ASSOCHAM gives raise to the thought that probably the vested interests who wanted an "Intermediary Friendly legislation" and were aghast at the current provisions which under various sections and under Section 67 C in particular have now started firing from the shoulders of the ASSOCHAM to get the Bill further amended.
We trust ASSOCHAM would throw open its study which leads to such a conclusion for the public to evaluate.
Can a Spouse Hack into the other Spouse's Orkut profile?
February 01: We frequently come across situations where one spouse engages the services of an ethical hacker and tries to monitor the internet activities of the other spouse and later use it as evidence in matrimonial cases. The legal implication of such an exercise is very tricky. Even if the evidence may be useful in the matrimonial court, it may create an admission of a hacking activity for the spouse who ordered the hacking. Even the ethical hacker and the company involved if any along with its chief executive may be guilty of abetment in the crime. Whoever uses such strategy for collection of evidence in matrimonial cases should be ready for the consequences. Related Article in Deccan Chronicle
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