As per the report from the Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm IMRB International, India is expected to reach 450 – 465 million internet users by June, up 4 – 8% from 432 million in December 2016.
Opportunity: So there are approximately 750 million users in rural India, who are potential internet users; if the services are packaged in a cost effective manner.
The growing number of internet and computer users along with the use of social media have created few anomalies, as attempts of hacking, spreading rumours, posting photos without consent etc. Though Cyber Security law has been here from quite long time but most of us are not aware of it.
The intricate world of cyberspace is a milieu, which involves communications between devices, people, software and related services. The sophisticated world-wide information distribution network and communication technology is the core of such massive data routing. The inter-connected world of people, devices or software is getting benefited by the technological advancements and today the whole world is in a common pool to utilize cyberspace in and effective an efficient way but this makes it hard to induce clear boundaries of information security in the different groups of users like people, corporate, critical information infrastructure, military and governments.
Cyber Security:
ISO 27001 (ISO27001) is the international cybersecurity standard that delivers a model for creating, applying, functioning, monitoring, reviewing, preserving and improving in information security management system.
The Ministry Of Communication and Information Technology under Government of India provides a strategic outline known as National Cybersecurity Policy. The purpose of this is to protect and provide a clear guidelines for the public and private infrastructure from cyber-attacks.
Information Technology Act 2000:
The key amendments was made in 2008, a Section 66A was presented to penalise for sending any “offensive messages”. Also a new Section 69, by which government authorities got the power to “interception or monitoring or decryption of any information through any computer resource”. It also presented severe penalties related to the crimes like, pornographic material, cyber terrorism and voyeurism.
Revocation by the Supreme Court:
In the Shreya Singhal v. Union of India case on 24 March 2015, the Supreme Court of India, gave the verdict that Section 66A is unconstitutional. However rejected the plea to strike down Sections 69A and 79. The Court said that the offences defined under the law were “open-ended, undefined and vague” and that “public’s right to know” is directly affected by it.
The Government of India passed The Information Technology Act with some critical objectives to accomplish as follows
- The aim was to use replacements of paper-based methods of communication and storage of information. To deliver lawful recognition for transactions through electronic data interchange (EDI) and other means of electronic communication, commonly known as E-Commerce.
- To facilitate electronic filing of documents with the Government agencies and further to amend the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, the Bankers’ Books Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.
By adopting this Cyber Legislation, India became the 12th nation in the world to adopt a Cyber Law regime.
