FAQ
Cyber Evidence Archival Center (CEAC)
1. What is Cyber
Evidence Archival Center?
2. Why
CEAC service is required?
3. Who
Requires CEAC Service?
4. Is it a
Notary Service?
5.
What are the Kinds of Documents that can be Archived?
6. How much
does it cost?
7. How do
I make the payment?
8. Ho do I
avail the Service?
9. What is the
Procedure adopted by CEAC ?
10. Does CEAC
service compromise Privacy?
11. Can a
Document be archived confidentially?
12. What kind of
support can be expected?
13.
How much does it cost to use the Support Services?
14.
How long the archival register would be maintained?
15. Who owns CEAC?
16. Is
there Government backing for the service?
17. Is
there a similar service running elsewhere?
18. What is the legal status of CEAC?
19. What
is the legal status of CEAC Certificates?
20. Does CEAC
guarantee legal acceptance?
21.What are the common problems associated with Digital Signature
Certificates?
22. What
are the Technology Inputs used by CEAC?
23. Where
do I contact for further information?
1. What is Cyber
Evidence Archival Center?
Cyber Evidence Archival Center or CEAC is a
Brick and Click service for preserving electronic documentary
evidence for use in legal proceedings.
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2. Why
CEAC service is required?
The Information Technology Act-2000 (ITA-2000)
applicable in India has provided legal recognition to Electronic
documents. However, for an electronic document to be accepted as
evidence in a court of law, there are certain formalities to be
completed. Presently there is no proper mechanism available to the
common man to accomplish this objective. It is not clear if other
upcoming mechanisms based on Digital Signatures would be economical
for ordinary Netizens. Hence this service.
Further, availability of Digital Certificates
will not serve all the requirements of the Netizens. For example,
having a digital certificate and using it against an outgoing
e-mail will not provide sufficient evidence if the addressee
contends that he has not received the mail.
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3. Who
Requires CEAC Service?
Any Netizen (including a business entity) who
wants to use electronic documents in the form of E-Mails and Web
Pages to conclude valid Digital Contracts and require the offer or
acceptance documents to be preserved for future use as evidence.
The Certified E-Mail Forwarding Service is a
critical service requirement for Companies who send out e-mail
notices of various kinds to their customers and would like them to
be available for future legal use. Online Stock brokers sending
contract notes by e-mail, Banks and Financial Institutions sending
default notices, Insurance Companies sending premium notices are
examples of such Companies.
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4. Is it a
Notary Service?
No. This Service is Not a Notary Service under the Notaries Act 1952. The
certification process used by CEAC will follow the principles
enunciated in Information Technology Act 2000
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5.
What are the Kinds of Documents that can be Archived?
a) E-Mail sent to
i) another E-Mail or
ii) a Physical Address in India.
b) E-mail received
c) Web Page
d) Certified E-Mail Forwarding from Companies to
E-mail addresses in India.
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6. How much
does it Cost?
The cost of CEAC archiving and certification
depends on the size of the document in terms of number of A4 sized
print outs with a minimum. The current pricing is as follows.
a) i) E-mail to E-mail (Sent) : Rs 50 per page
with a minimum of Rs 500/-
ii) E-mail to Address: Rs 100
per page with a minimum of Rs 1000/-
b) E-Mail to E-Mail ( Received) : Rs 50 per page with a
minimum of Rs 500/-
c) Web Page: Rs 50 per page with a minimum of Rs
500/-
d) Certified E-Mail Forwarding Service is
offered in the following three phases.
i) Certified Sent
ii) Certified Delivered
iii) Certified Read
The cost of this service is negotiable based on
the volumes.
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7. How do I
make the Payment?
The payment of the minimum amount of Rs 500/- or Rs 1000/- should be first paid online through Naavi's Payment Center,
using Naavi's Payment Receipts at the time of placing the request.
In case the actual charges are higher, an invoice
for the additional amount would be sent by e-mail along with the
instructions for payment and it can be paid online as a secondary
payment.
Payment for Certified E-mail Forwarding Services
will be as per the negotiations.
All Payments are being received online through
ccavenue.com's Sub-merchant service.
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8. How do I
avail the Service?
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9. What is the
Procedure adopted by CEAC ?
CEAC will confirm the document by sending
confirmatory messages to the counter party of an E-Mail or by
visiting the web site, take print outs and then register the contents
in a "Register". Entries will be made in writing in the register
containing appropriate references to the document with a copy of the
document itself being pasted to the register. Each page of the
register will correspond to one page of the certificate and every
page of the register will be properly accounted so that no
interlineations are possible. The CEAC will also create and keep
ancillary documents in the register itself time stamping the
transaction based on its own confirmatory process.
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10. Does CEAC
service compromise Privacy?
CEAC wants to retain the option of rejecting
documents that are indicative of any un lawful activity and to report
to the law enforcement authorities in case any transaction is
indicative of activities alien to the Country. This is a
responsibility imposed by operation of laws of the country including
POTA. Additionally, CEAC wants to confirm the documents registered as
genuine by its confirmatory process which involves re-sending the
e-mail for confirmation to the counter party. The privacy of the mail
will be preserved subject to these conditions.
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11. Can a
Document be archived confidentially?
Confidential archiving means a process of
archiving a document without the counter party coming to know of it.
In the web page archiving, we do not propose to inform the web site
owner specifically of the archival process since only publicly
accessible Web pages alone are archived. The normal procedure for
E-Mail archival is to send the confirmatory message to the counter
party and hence the fact of archival is not confidential. This
procedure has been adopted to prevent false document registration.
This is required to make the communication non repudiable. CEAC
therefore does not recommend confidential archival as it weakens the
acceptability of the evidence. Any requests to the contrary can be
addressed as a special request to
naavi@vsnl.com and will be dealt
with appropriately.
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12. What kind of
support can be expected?
The registrants are provided with their own copies
at the time of registration and support if any may be required for
issue of duplicate copies or for substantiating the evidence for a
Court at the time of any arbitration or litigation. CEAC will
preserve the register for a minimum of 10 years. It will also send
electronic confirmation to a Court when required without further
charge. In case duplicate copies of the certificates are required
suitable charges will be indicated at the time of request. If
personal appearance is required in a court of law, an authorized
representative would be deputed subject to the reimbursement of
necessary expenses.
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13.
How much does it cost to use the Support Services?
The price for providing support services would be
reasonable and commensurate with the services required as relevant at
the time of availment. No figures can be quoted at present.
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14.
How long the archival register would be maintained?
10 years as per present plans.
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15. Who owns CEAC?
CEAC is a division of Cyber Law Solutions Ltd, a
body corporate and presently run buy Na.Vijayashankar, also called
Naavi, founder of Naavi.com and other related web sites. It is
located in Chennai, India.
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16. Is
there Government backing for the service?
Not at present.
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17. Is
there a similar service running elsewhere?
Not to our knowledge in the form in which the
service is being offered as a "Brick and Click Service".
Services for Archival of electronic documents through a "Vault
Process" is however available outside India. They are basically meant
for the back up purpose and not necessarily for Cyber Evidence
purpose.
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18.
What is the legal status of CEAC?
CEAC service is a hybrid service not
easily classified into other known types of services. However, it
falls into the category of "IT Enabled Service" which is
likely to be classified as an "Intermediary" under section 2 (w) and
Section 79 of Information technology Act-2000.
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19. What
is the legal status of CEAC Certificates?
The CEAC service is a first of its kind service
not only in India as well as world over. The legal status of the CEAC
certificates has to therefore emerge out of the way the society and
its various constituents including the Netizens, the Law Enforcement
Machinery, The Judiciary and the Government perceive the service. At
the least, it should have the status of a " Witness of an
Independent Third Party to the existence of document archived".
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20. Does CEAC
guarantee legal acceptance?
No. However the prospect of its acceptance is high
in view of the witness being a third party. Since there is no
precedent for this service any where in the world, we need to wait
for community acceptance first and then hope for judicial acceptance.
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21.What are the common problems associated with Digital Signature
Certificates?
a) Digital Certificates cost annual fees to maintain.
The costs may vary between Rs 750 to Rs 1500 per year depending on
the class of certificate.
b) Use of Digital Certificates in shared machines is
open to risks of Key compromise.
c) Revocation verification systems of Digital
Certificates are not reliable.
d) User is exposed to configuration risks of
"Auto Sign" and "No Revocation Check" configurations which can
lead to unintended use of a signature and trusting of a revoked
certificates.
e) User is exposed to the risk of negligently
configured passwords to protect key files or use of "Auto Complete"
feature for passwords.
f) User has no easy remedy against an addressee who
maintains non receipt of the mail.
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22. What
are the Technology Inputs used by CEAC?
CEAC certification is apparently a simple registry
service. However, to make the service reliable, CEAC adopts
procedures and technology processes in the back end. These have been
built out of years of experience of Naavi as a Banking professional
and Cyber Law specialist and backed up by the best available
technology at this point of time. The technology inputs are however
subject to change from time to time and are a matter of "Technical
Know How".
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23. Where do
I contact for further information?
You can send an e-mail to
naavi@vsnl.com with subject line
ceac-info for any further information.
Your comments if any can also be sent to
naavi@vsnl.com with the subject
line ceac-comment
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