Shane Warne, the world renowned Australian Cricketer has come back to
competitive Cricket after serving a one year ban for having been tested
positive for a performance enhancing drug...
What is the lesson for Indian Companies from his experience?
Any Business is a bundle of Risks. More
so when the business is globally competitive. Risks can themselves be of many
types. First is the market risks such as change of consumer preferences or
entry of competitors. Second is the technology risk such as obsolescence of
technology. Third is the financial risk such as change in the interest rates
or availability of funds.
While Management Gurus have been
talking of the above risks for quite some time and suggesting means to manage
these risks, the 21st Century business is confronted with a new kind of
Business Risk namely the " Techno Legal Risks"
In the context of the 21st Century
business where E-Business Component is a significant part of the business and
the foundation of the business strategy of an organization, it has become
necessary for an organization to hold large amount of its assets in the form
of "Information Assets". These assets are stored in Electronic form on media
or running computer devices and on the Internet. These are subject to theft,
destruction, manipulation and unauthorized re-use. Even the process of
creation of assets such as "Writing Software Programmes" or "Exchange of
Communication" has become part of the Information world. Personal information
of confidential nature such as the health and personal data of an individual
has also been digitized. As a result substantial part of the assets of an
individual and an organization is today in the form of information assets.
Yet another characteristic of the
emerging society is the interplay between the Cyber Society and the Met
Society. Due to the inherent differences in the two societies, creating a
harmony between the two societies where assets of one society be protected
from being vandalized in the other society continues to be a problem.
If these assets i.e. assets of the
Cyber Society and Assets of the Meta Society that are "Convertible to Cyber
Society" are not protected properly, then an organization is at a risk of
financial loss. More over just as the collapse of a Building constructed by a
Contractor could land you in jail for "Negligence causing loss of human
lives", there could be vicarious liability on account of wrongful use of
the assets by others.
The bundle of risks that a business
entity now faces in this context is what we can classify as "Techno-Legal
Risks". This is a combination of technology risks such as unauthorized access
to a network through hacking, or destruction of data through a virus
introduction etc and the legal risks such as the liability in a Copyright
Violation or a Privacy Violation or an unknown contractual obligation or even
an unknown "negligence" of a legal obligation.
It is important to remember that the
best of technical expertise cannot often prevent liabilities arising out of
legal risks is illustrated by the fact that most of the network security
breaches occur from within the Firewalls and the IDS and the legal remedies
against employees cannot always protect the Company against all risks arising
out of the breach.
Just as the best of technical skills
that Shane Warne could not prevent him from being punished for being "Non
Compliant Of the Laws of Cricket", Companies which ignore Cyber Law Compliancy
have to bear the adverse consequences of such negligence.
Had Shane Warne been " Cricket Law
Compliant", he would have saved both the loss of one year of active Cricket
and the Loss of Reputation. Being Non Compliant therefore created losses which
he could have avoided. It may ultimately have cost him at least 50 test
wickets which he will never be able to recoup. He could have also lost his
test place for ever and was saved only because he was too good to lose his
place despite one year absence.
A Company in a similar
situation where it is caught for non compliance of law and made to pay
compensation of some kind will in most cases not have such luxury.
Napster is an example. Yours could be the Next example...if you do not take
care.
It is therefore necessary for every
Company in business particularly those using Computers as a part of its
business to have a systematic plan of action to measure their risk exposure to
"Techno Legal Risks" of the use of Computers and take measures to manage them.
This is the central theme of the "CyLawCom
Certification Programme" for a Company for which an army of "CyLawCom
Examiners" is required.
It is the declared mission of Cyber Law
College to create the army of CyLawCom Examiners in India and provide the
means to Companies for protecting themselves against Techno-Legal Risks.
(More
Information Click here )
Naavi
February 5, 2003
(Comments are Welcome)