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Korea Introduces New Domain Name Law
A new law is being introduced in South Korea to regulate the Domain Name system and prevent abuse of domain name registration. Details are awaited.
ITA-2000 being Amended
It has been learnt that ITA-2000 has been amended to correct some of the ambiguities that had crept during its initial drafting such as Section 35 (3). Details are awaited.
Dated 30, September, 2002
Indian Cyber Security market Expected to grow by 80% p.a.
A few year's back, it was common to expect a 100% p.a. growth consistently in the IT industry. This was largely responsible for the stock market boom that was only punctured after the 9/11/00 terrorist attack. Now, according to a recent survey by a marketing consultancy firm, the IT security market in India is expected to grow by 80 % from US$ 21 million in 2001 to US $37.5 million in 2002.
It's time perhaps for Indian software Companies to look at Cyber Security products as a niche area of specialization.
Pakistan's Electronic Signature Ordinance..A Brief Analysis
On the 11th September 2002, while the world mourned the terrorist attack on the World Trade center, Pakistan took a significant step in the direction of promoting E-Commerce and Controlling Cyber Crimes in their country, with the presidential proclamation of the Electronic Signature Ordinance.
Naavi.com had taken a look at the earlier draft of the proposed legislation in January 2002 and we shall now analyse the legislation as passed in a series of articles.
Naavi
Dated 24 th September 2002
The first article in this series entitled "The Certification Council Under ESO-2002 of Pakistan" presented here.
The second article of this series entitled "Offences Under the ESO-2002 of Pakistan" is available here.
The third article of this series entitled "Electronic Signatures under ESO-2002 of Pakistan" is available here.
The analysis of the earlier draft can be found here.
Beware of the Nepalese Version of the Nigerian Fraud
Regular users of e-mail are aware of the so called Nigerian Fraud attempt. It has now been observed that a similar fraud seems to be now emerging from Nepal. In view of the familiarity of Indian population with the events of Nepal and also the easy movement of money across the borders, this is a greater threat for the Indian population.
This being a fraud against the community, We urge that the CBI takes action to stop this menace without waiting for any member of the public to file a formal complaint.
US National Strategy to Secure Cyber Space
The US Government has published a strategy for securing US Cyber space for public comments. The document released on September 18th by the Whitehouse is an interesting educative guideline in Cyber security for ordinary Netizens as well as various types of organizations. It also highlights the dependency of the country and the risks of Cyber terrorism. It also recognizes the need for public participation and international co-operation in its fight against Cyber terrorism. The need for Cyber Security Education is also emphasized.
This should be an eye opener for Indian policy makers as well.
In this context, this article of Naavi written recently on Cyber Terrorism would be of interest to the visitors
Copy of Guidelines- PDF Version / html version
Indian ITA-2000 is more expansive than US ESIGN Act ?
The ITA-2000 has exempted several categories of documents from being legally valid in electronic form with digital signatures. How does these exemptions compare with the corresponding US Act?
After Mathematics, it is Physics in Cyber Law!!!
Cyber Law regime is indebted to the field of mathematics since the fundamental building block of Cyber security, the PKI system is based on modular mathematics. Now it appears that Physics is set to make its contribution to the science of secure internet communications leaving its mark on the Cyber Law regime. We are proud that an Indian Scientist in Massachusetts Institute of Technology in USA, Mr Ravikant Pappu is credited with the development of a tamper proof system for online credit card validation that is based on the theory of "Coherent Multiple Scattering of waves From Inhomogeneous Structures".
Physical One way functions, an introduction
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Patents Available for Licensing-in China, Japan, Korea and Germany Naavi is entering the National Phase for exploiting the Patent backed B2B services Verify For Look Alikes (Domain Name Dispute Protection Service) and Ad View Certification (Banner Ad Exposure Certification Service). He is interested in exploring assigning of exploitation rights in specific countries, in particular in China, Korea, Japan and Germany, to interested persons/companies. Interested Companies in these or other countries are welcome to contact Naavi@vsnl.com |
ICANN Contract Renewed
The US department of Commerce and ICANN entered into an MOU on September 18 which extends the contractual right of the not for profit organization ICANN to continue it present functions of controlling the Internet domain name and number space for one more year.
One of the functions embedded therein is for ICANN to Consult with foreign governments to promote increased and more effective governmental participation in the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC). Such activities shall include working with the GAC on steps governments should take to advance ICANN's efforts to achieve stable agreements with organizations operating country code top level domains (ccTLDs).
Action is required in India to create a suitable agency to represent the country in this regard. Even though NCST has been entrusted with the responsibility of managing the Indian ccTLD, there appears to be a need to strengthen the focus of NCST in such matters, if it has to represent Indian interests in the ICANN forum.
Beware! Anti Spam Laws may soon hit SMS ads.
California has now passed a law banning sending of unsolicited faxes and text messages on cell phone. The logic is that such communication sent at the cost of the receiver obstruct his legitimate business requirements and require his permission.
Will such legislation come to India also?..hopefully not as long as incoming messages are not charged to the consumers.
Related Story in Silicon Valley
ICC's high handedness Vindicates Convergence Act
The ICC Champions Trophy going on in Sri Lanka has opened yet another controversy regarding Intellectual Property rights which has relevance to the observers of the Communication Convergence legislation in India....
Foreign Exchange Regulation For Cyber Transactions has now been Simplified.
In a recent press release, Reserve Bank of India has stated that the procedure for release of foreign exchange has been simplified for remittances upto US $ 500. It is now sufficient for a resident individual to submit a simple letter to the Bank containing the basic information such as Name and Address of the applicant and the beneficiary, the amount and purpose of remittance sought. No other document is required if the payment is made through a cheque.
Even though the simplification would basically facilitate all transactions of small value to be completed without much of a formality, it would be appreciated by Internet users as it would now make it easier to acquire vital applications such as anti virus, personal firewalls, information subscriptions etc.
Grappling with Electronic Evidence in Journalist's murder Case
In an unexpected but significant development, the investigations in the celebrated Shivani Bhatnagar murder case in Delhi has now become a subject matter of interest to the Cyber Law and Cyber Crime observers in India.
The investigations are now zeroing in its focus on the way Electronic Evidence is handled in law and practice and irrespective of the legal developments in the actual case, there will be several learning points that would enlighten the Cyber Law community and the Cyber crime investigators.
ISP s Admit to Selective Blocking of Websites
In a continuing controversy on whether an ISP can block a select website to either protect its own commercial interest or to honour its licensing terms, ISP s in India have atlast come out openly admitting that they are blocking net telephony sites as this article in Indian Express reports.
If ISPs are capable of blocking individual sites of their choice, citizens of India would like to ask them why they cannot block sites carrying pornography as a spokes person of VSNL pleaded in the Mumbai high court or why many anti India web sites proliferate on the web.
Does this mean that they are indirectly promoting the cause of the anti India terrorists by remaining silent on the demand to block terrorist sites? Can they not therefore be charged under POTA for aiding and abetting terrorist activities in India?.
I think that an answer to this is due from not only the ISP s but also the Governments for not initiating action against ISPs while similar action has been rightly initiated against political activists.
Music Industry Sues ISPs
Music giants in USA have initiated action against ISP s demanding them to block the Chinese website listen4ever.com which is said to be allowing copying of music recordings. The aggressive pursuance of legal action by the US music industry is driven by a greed that may eventually boomerang on the industry.
If there has been a fall in music sales as has been reported recently, the reason could be the shutting down of many Internet radio stations besides the Napster. In music and entertainment, exposure will lead to increased purchase of CDs, if the product is really good. If the exposure is blocked, people will learn to live without the product causing a down trend in the industry.
Hope the Music industry will realize this truth and stops seeking legal action at every opportunity.
E-Commerce Directive in EU Mandates Cyber Law Compliancy
The European E-Commerce directive which became effective from August 21, has imposed responsibilities on E-Commerce sites to take steps to prevent Spam and also to provide some key information such as person to contact, Business address etc. Non Compliance may result in damages and action against the directors of the E-Commerce company.
It will not be long before such Cyber Law Compliancy becomes mandatory in India too.
DIT Guide to E-Commerce Directive
Related Article in Silicon Valley
A World Class Achievement from IIT Kanpur
Manindra Agrawal, Neeraj Kayal and Nitin Saxena, theoretical computer science researchers from IIT Kanpur have discovered a new algorithm for quickly finding out whether a large number is a prime number or not. Strange as it may seem, this mathematical achievement has relevance to Cyber Laws since creation of a random large prime number is part of the process of generating key pairs for digital signature systems. The new invention has the potential of triggering off development of high security digital signature systems in future.
IIT Student Arrested For Stealing Source Code
A former IIT Kharagpur student is reported to have been arrested for wrongfully acquiring the "Source Code" of a software belonging to an US Company made available for debugging to his employers and then trying to sell them for a price. The boy was trapped by FBI acting along with the local police.
The incident also highlights the lack of "Cyber Law Compliancy" at the local software company where the boy worked and stole the source code which facilitated the crime. It is such unmonitored "Negligence" that renders the current "Organizational Quality Certification" methods flawed requiring down grading of Quality Certification of organizations that do not have a "Cyber Law Compliancy System".
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