Civil Liberties In India And Technological Revolution

India has been resisting technological revolution for long. Whether it is draconian information technology amendment act 2008 or Internet censorship activities or e-surveillance obsession or curbing of use of video conferencing, Indian is leaving no occasion to curb technology.

Civil liberties in cyberspace in India are in grave danger as India is more and more anxious to control information and communication technology (ICT). In fact, techno legal experts like Praveen Dalal, managing partner of ICT law firm Perry4Law, have openly suggested repealing of the information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000).

The IT Act 2000 is the sole cyber law of India that has become an instrumentality of oppression, censorship and surveillance. For instance, the recent Internet intermediary guidelines issued by Indian government are considered so offensive by all concerned that a motion to annul the same is currently pending before the Parliament of India.

However, even if the Internet intermediary guidelines are annulled, the draconian IT Act 2000 would keep on haunting Indian stakeholders. Internet intermediary were recently asked to pre screen contents before posting. Members of Association for Progressive Communications (APC) can themselves analyse the vagueness and absurdity of any such demand.

Now Indian government may ask Google, Facebook, etc to establish servers in India so that their activities can be watched and controlled. Add to this the lawless and non accountable projects like Aadhar, central monitoring system project of India, national cyber coordination centre (NCCC) of India, etc and you would get a picture of Indian endemic e-surveillance intentions.

Fortunately, Indians have been fighting for human rights protection in Indian cyberspace. Even awareness about human rights protection in cyberspace is spreading at national and international level. However, the call is for the United Nation (UN) to take. Till now UN is very slow in adopting and recognising human rights in cyberspace.

No matter howsoever oppressive a regime may be technology would find ways to defeat the same. With some additional safeguards, anonymity and speech and expression can be further safeguarded.

Indian government must realise that technology is not an enemy but a friend and hostile intentions would not help Indian government anymore. The sooner it is realised the better it would be for the larger benefits of India.

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.

Exclusive Cyber Forensics Book For Government Departments Of India

Cyber forensics is receiving attention of Indian government these days. Whether it is Ministry of Home Affairs, Income Tax Department of India, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), etc, all of them are dealing with cyber forensics in one form or other.

However, of all Ministries/Departments, Ministry of Home Affairs is most interested in developing cyber forensics capabilities. This is so because the central Home Ministry is managing not only law enforcement issues but also issues pertaining to national security.

Further, very soon we may see a National Security Policy of India as well. Whenever such a Policy would be drafted, cyber security and cyber forensics would be essential part of the same.

Even cyber forensics has become very important for Indian legal and judicial system as well because cyber crimes and white color crimes convictions require effective use of cyber forensics to prove the guilt of the accused.

However, cyber forensics is a new field for India and there are very few research works in this regard. Even the Parliament of India has no ready made research material on the basis of which suitable cyber forensics and cyber security laws can be enacted in India.

Praveen Dalal, managing partner of Perry4Law and Supreme Court lawyer, believes that Cyber Forensics is a field that requires greater attention and support from Executive, Judiciary and Parliament of India. He maintains that there is an urgent need to “Sensitise” the three Constitutional Pillars of Indian Constitution and these Pillars must pay more attention to issues like Cyber Law, Cyber Security, Cyber Forensics, Cyber Warfare, Cyber Espionage, etc.

In this background, Praveen Dalal has taken a pro active step. He has released the first edition (September 2010) of his book on cyber forensics in India. He informs that presently, the Book is available under “Limited Circulation Only” and that also after receiving a “Written Request” in this regard from the Head of the Department (HOD) of the “Selective” Governmental Department alone.

Presently, the book is available for executive, legislature and judiciary of India alone. However, do not loose heart as very soon the “public version” of the same would be released after June 2011.

Hopefully, this book would provide meaningful insights of the field of cyber forensics to Indian government. It may also be helpful while drafting future technology related laws, especially techno legal laws, as it is providing many world class and international level “best practices” in the field of cyber forensics.

I am waiting for the “public version” of the same so that I can have one.

Internet Censorship In India Has Increased

Internet has been under constant and furious attacks all over the world. The fact is that Internet is under potential threat these days. The threat is not only from malicious users, rouge nations and automated viruses and worms but also from our own governments.

Take the example of Internet kill switch (IKS) that has been increasingly seen as a solution to cyber threats. But IKS is no solution to cyber security threats. Rather it is a remedy worst than the malady and would prove dangerous in the long term.

The only purpose of IKS is to strengthen the e-surveillance powers of governments and its agencies. This is the reason why we must have anti Internet kill switch measures at hand.

Internet censorship is a result of this desire to control the Internet and online activities of netizens. Internet censorship has drastically increased in India in recent times. With adoption of projects like central monitoring system (CMS) by Indian government, this is quiet clear. Like other projects, CMS also is not under parliamentary scrutiny and this raises serious civil liberties violations issues in India.

Recently Blogspot was blocked in India once again under an “experimental blocking” exercise. It is believed that the same has been done using the CMS of India. This exercise was undertaken to analyse the websites blocking capabilities of Indian government and its agencies.

India has a draconian but cyber criminals’ friendly cyber law in the form of information technology act, 2000 (IT Act 2000). It was amended in 2008 to confer unregulated e-surveillance, Internet censorship and website blocking powers to Indian government and its agencies. The present cyber law of India is an unconstitutional one in the absence of procedural safeguards that can prevent these abusive draconian powers under the IT Act 2000. It requires an urgent repeal.

If at all India is serious about national security and cyber security, it must formulate a national security policy of India. This policy must cover issues like national security, cyber security, internal security, external security, etc. It must also provide constitutionally sound guidelines regarding cyber security and national security.

Presently, e-surveillance, phone tapping, interceptions, etc are not done under a constitutionally sound law. In fact, India has no constitutionally valid phone tapping and lawful interception law so far.

If India wishes to safeguard its cyberspace, Internet censorship is no solution. Rather, Internet censorship does not give positive results and always gives a bad taste afterwards. India must seriously consider this aspect and come up with effective laws and policies regarding lawful and constitutional regulation of Internet in India.