Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Cyber Terrorism In India

Cyber terrorism in India and its solutions has become a topic of much discussion these days. There is no second opinion that cyber terrorism is a national security hazard and India must take good care of the same.

India is facing serious cyber threats and cyber terrorism against India is one of them. Cyber terrorism in India and its preparedness are not upto the mark. This is primarily because of the reason that India has no national security policy. National security policy of India is required so that issues like cyber crimes, cyber security threats, cyber attacks, cyber terrorism, cyber espionage, cyber warfare, etc can be effectively tackled.

Another crucial lacuna in Indian national security policy is that cyber security policy of India is missing. Till now we have not yet formulated any information security policy of India.

Further, critical infrastructure protection in India is also need of the hour. As more and more crucial public functions and essential services are attached to and delivered through technology, critical infrastructure of India is at grave risk. India is planning to provide mandatory e-governance services for Indian citizens by government departments. This would tie up the essential computer systems of Indian government with cyberspace and thereby making them vulnerable to cyber attacks.

Securing Critical National Infrastructure of India from Cyber Attacks is not an easy task, suggests Praveen Dalal, managing partner of New Delhi base ICT law firm Perry4Law and leading techno legal expert of India. It has to be tackled in a Techno Legal manner. A sound Legal Framework must be supplemented by Technical Expertise to achieve this crucial task, suggests Dalal. Indian Crisis Management Plan to tackle Cyber Attacks and Cyber Terrorism is need of the hour, says Dalal.

Cyber terrorism is an issue that cannot be taken lightly by India. The cyber law of India, i.e. information technology act, 2000, carries a single provision to deal with cyber terrorism. When we need an entire legislation for cyber security and cyber terrorism, enacting a single provision is not enough.

In fact, this shows the indifference and insensitivity of Indian government towards one of the most potential form of national security threat, i.e. cyber threats. Time has come to enact good cyber laws and cyber security laws in India so that cyber threats and cyber crimes can be tackled effectively.