The Mumbai terrorist attacks on 26/11 has been frequently referred to in India as the “9/11 of India”. In terms of the impact it has created in the country it is definitely a fair comparison.
However, what the Indian population has been wondering is whether our country can respond to this situation as strongly as US did after 9/11/2001 as a result of which no terrorist attack has occured in US since then. The intensity of the feelings prevailing in India has made every Citizen sit up and ask himself what he can do for the Country to stop the evil of terrorism.
It is in this context that Cyber Law College, a dedicated Cyber Law education center in India primarily operating as a Virtual institution thought it necessary to formulate a response of the Netizens to terrorism and more particularly to what is often referred to as “Cyber Terrorism” and arranged a Round Table Discussion on the subject of “Cyber Terrorism” at Bangalore on 6th December.
A small group of professionals committed to the cause met and exchanged their views and charted an action plan for further activities in contributing to the fight against “Cyber Terrorism”.
The Round Table discussed on four sets of issues namely the legal issues, IT industry issues, the measures which US took after 9/11 and actionable tasks that are required at present.
The group felt that though the proposed amendments to ITA 2000 is expected to include a section on “Cyber Terrorism”, it would be grossly insufficient and the Government of India (GOI) should not feel complacent that “Cyber Terrorism has been tackled”. It highlighted that apart from having an effective definition, operational issues such as the “Powers of the police” and “Admissibility of Evidence” needs to be further amended in favour of the law enforcement for offences classified as “Cyber Terrorism” as against offences classified as “Cyber Crime”.
Debating on the definition of “Cyber Terrorism” used by FBI and US National Infrastructure Protection Center, it was felt that both the definitions make it dependent on “Violence in physical space” and could be restricted to only those cases in which there is loss of human life or destruction of physical property. It was felt that these offences are already covered as “Terrorism” in the normal laws and if the definition of “Cyber Terrorism” has to make a difference, then it is essential to expand the definition of “Violence” to include destruction of virtual property too.
It was also felt that Terrorist support activities on the Internet such as propaganda, rumour mongering, money laundering etc also need to be covered. It was also recognized that the US definition require “political” agenda where as “Religious” agenda of the perpetrators may not be adequately covered.
It was therefore felt that ITA 2000 should ensure that a restrictive definition of Cyber Terrorism should not be used.
On the industry front, it was discussed that the IS efforts presently adopted may not fully take into account the possibility of cyber terror attacks and the IS practices need to be refined to ensure that risks arising out of Cyber terror attacks are adequately mitigated.
It was felt that on the lines of the Department of Home Land Security, India should also set up a national agency to oversee all activities connected with the fight against Cyber Terrorism.
In particular the need for an “Indian PATRIOT Act” creating a comprehensive legislative framework was strongly felt necessary in India. Such an act was felt useful to enable “Counter intelligence measures” to be put on a proper legislative frame work. It was felt that individuals who often use their skills to carry out Cyber attacks in retaliation to web defacements should be put on guard that they may actually be indulging in “Cyber terrorism” as defined in victim countries.
It was indicated that Pakistan has recently passed a legislation which provides for life imprisonment and also death penalty for Cyber Terrorist acts and our technologists need to be restrained from taking law into their own hands. On the other hand, the group urged that the GOI should introduce a mechanism by which services of ethical hackers are used by the Government for counter intelligence and where necessary counter attacks but under a strict control of a law enforcement agency.
The group also highlighted the need to bring the Netizens under the national security framework by creating suitable security awareness so that the presence of “botnets” are reduced and security breaches as are common in WiFi networks are reduced substantially.
In order to follow up on various suggestions made during the discussion and to extend the reach of the group, it was decided to formally call the group as the “Indian National Cyber Security Forum” and reach out to other similar thinking individuals to contribute ideas on how Netizens can participate in the national cyber security plans.
It was decided to have further meetings both in Bangalore and other places such as Chennai to take the discussions forward.It was agreed that the members will take up the recommendations to other fora and the Government for further processing so that significant improvements can be brought into the system of Cyber Security in India.
Naavi
[P.S: This is a brief report on the first meeting of the National Cyber Security Forum held at Bangalore on December 6, 2008, an initiative of the Naavi’s Cyber Law College]
Loading ...
6 users commented in " National Cyber Security Forum urges for an “Indian PATRIOT act” "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackThat may be a good idea if the Leading techno-Leagl Specialist of India ,i.e. Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law, heads the same. In the absence of Experts like Mr. Praveen Dalal and Techno-Legal Firms like Perry4Law, we cannot expect good reformative actions in India regarding legal enablement of ICT systems in India. His suggestions became part of the much awaited IT Act, 2000 Amendment Bill, 2006 and a good direction has been provided by him.Undoubtedly, he is the best cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics specialist in India and World wide.
Kunal, I agree with you. Mr. Praveen Dalal started the drive against weak cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics in India when no other expert had done so. His rich experience is an absolutly must requirement in India.
Dear Mr Kunal/V K Singh et al
(If there are real persons called Kunal, V K Singh)
People like me, Rohas Nagpal and Pavan Duggal who are in the field since 1998 know who in India has been contributing to the cause of better Cyber Laws. Praveen Dalal started his active work in the field much later and initially writing articles through naavi.org.
You are doing a dis-service to Praveen Dalal by making false claims. Praveen is an intelligent young advocate and can carve out a niche for himself over a period of time. But dotting the web with false claims is not the way to do it. This is a misuse of the freedom of expression that the web provides.
Please stop claiming that he was the “person who started drive against the weak cyber law” with the added comment “when no other expert had done so”. This betrays complete ignorance of developments at your end.
If you donot know, please visit http://www.naavi.org link on right menu “amendments” for more information.
Mr Navvi. We are as real as you are. If we would have praised you for your work perhaps the matter would have been different. The fact remains the fact no matter how much we try to supress it.Kindly tell us in how many cases YOU/Others have named any other expert by name while mentioning about your/their activities.We think liking or preference is a personal matter and we like Mr. Praveen Dalal for his tremendous knowledge and expertise(which we simcerly belive that none other possess, with no offense to other experts).The names you mentioned are also in the list of experts who have contributed for good cause of cyber law in India.
As far as the works and efforts of Mr. Praveen Dalal are concerned, any person can have an evaluation of the same by simply searching his name at the google search engine. We just mentioned about his national achievements but the serach would also reveal his expertise and acumen at the international level.
As I observe, every comment made by you or V K Singh does not end without making statements that Mr Praveen Dalal is the country’s foremost expert in the field of Cyber Law, Cyber Security, Cyber Forensic etc.
It is obvious that such blog postings do reflect in Google search.
What you should realize is that you are over doing your promotion and it brings bad name to Praveen Dalal himself. If you think what you are doing is right, please continue to do so and praise Praveen Dalal everytime you right.
However, you should refrain from making incorrect statements and also passing remarks that reflect on others.
Instead, I would like to suggest that you may undertake some specific plans such as organizing some out reach programmes in Delhi which helps the community.
Perhaps you can take the topic of “Cyber Terrorism” and organize some public debates so that we can mobilize public opinion in the right direction.
While disagreeing with your initial and present comments, we thank you for your valuable suggestions. We would try to bring together experts from all over india together. Needless to mention you would also be invited to share your expertise.
Leave A Reply